A CLOSER LOOK AT MAY’S
DOWN TO THE RIVER
By Anne Whitney Pierce
Freed from old rules and restrictions, two cousins tumble headlong into a world of politics, sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
Down to the River is a family saga set in the late 1960s in Cambridge, Massachusetts against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Twin brothers, Nash and Remi Potts, have grown up as entitled, Harvard-educated, golden boys, heirs to an old but dwindling family fortune. With the passage of time, the gold veneer of prosperity begins to chip away, and their lives begin to falter.
We meet Remi and Nash in 1968, in their mid-forties and partners in a sporting goods store in Harvard Square. The twins’ marriages are in trouble. Their youngest children, Chickie and Hen (mistakes, they’re often called), are coming of age during the turbulent urban wilderness of the late 1960s— school bomb threats, racial tensions, war protests and demonstrations at Harvard and beyond. With all hell breaking loose at home, and any semblance of “parenting” hanging ragged in the wind, the two cousins are left largely to their own devices.
Suddenly freed from old rules and restrictions, they head out onto the streets of Cambridge, which becomes their concrete playground, tumbling headlong into a world of politics, sex, drugs, rock and roll. Chickie and Hen forge an unbreakable bond as they join forces and hearts to stay afloat in the sea of upheaval that surrounds them, the lines of family love and loyalty often blurring.
THE AUTHOR
Anne Whitney Pierce is a lifelong Cantabrigian and the author of two books, Galaxy Girls: Wonder Women (1993) and Rain Line (2000). While raising her three daughters, she taught writing in the graduate Writing Program at Emerson College in Boston and to younger students in the Cambridge Public Schools. Her short fiction has appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, The Chattahoochee Review, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kansas Quarterly, Crosscurrents, and the Southern Review, among others. Her work has been included in the O’Henry Prize Story Collection and has won several awards, including the Nelson Algren Award, the Willa Cather Fiction Prize, the Paterson Fiction Prize, New Voices Award and a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award.
LEARN MORE
To learn more about Anne Whitney Pierce, visit her website.
UPROOTED
By Peter J. Boni
How a journey of self-discovery unearthed the scandalous evolution of artificial insemination
By his forties, Peter J. Boni was an accomplished CEO, with a specialty in navigating high-tech companies out of hot water. Just before his fiftieth birthday, Peter’s seventy-five-year-old mother unveiled a bombshell: His deceased father was not biological. Peter was conceived in 1945 via an anonymous sperm donor. The emotional upheaval upon learning that he was “misattributed” rekindled traumas long past and fueled his relentless research to find his genealogy. Over two decades, he gained an encyclopedic knowledge of the scientific, legal, and sociological history of reproductive technology as well as its practices, advances, and consequences. Through twenty-first century DNA analysis, Peter finally quenched his thirst for his origin.
In Uprooted, Peter J. Boni intimately shares his personal odyssey and acquired expertise to spotlight the free market methods of gamete distribution that conceives dozens, sometimes hundreds, of unknowing half-siblings from a single donor. This thought-provoking book reveals the inner workings—and secrets—of the multibillion-dollar fertility industry, resulting in a richly detailed account of an ethical aspect of reproductive science that, until now, has not been so thoroughly explored.
THE AUTHOR
Peter J. Boni credits his disruptive childhood, a state college education from UMass (Amherst), decorated on-the-ground service as a US Army Special Operations Team Leader in Vietnam (coined his “Rice Paddy MBA”), love of his family and friendship circle, plus luck-of-the-draw DNA with making him the person he has become today—an author, advocate, and fun-loving grandfather living on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
LEARN MORE
Follow Peter J. Boni on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Invite Peter to your book club.
To learn more about Peter J. Boni, visit his website
POWERBALLS
By Jimmy Clifton
A sudden windfall – and the money to make every dream come true…
With finances and marriage strained to the breaking point, Rose and Henry Ball dream of new lives filled with romance and adventure. Then Fortune takes a hand. Against all odds the couple win a record Powerball lottery. The sudden windfall is the answer to all their prayers.
Or not.
Helpless to resist the sirens’ song, the Balls leap feet first into the intoxicating world of the super-rich. Henry drifts into treacherous waters on a mad Russian oligarch’s yacht, while Rose throws caution to the wind and rushes headlong into the arms of a beautiful, dangerous stranger. The Balls are in way over their heads by the time Fortune reveals her capricious nature. A swashbuckling investment banker entrusted with their wealth has rolled the dice and lost. Now, money can’t save Rose from a terrible fate. It’s up to Henry to come to her rescue.
The pleasures and perils of sudden wealth spring to vivid life in the rip-roaring POWERBALLS, where wealth and security are illusions – and only love endures.
THE AUTHOR
JIMMY CLIFTON was reported lost at sea in the early morning hours of June 7, 2020. His crewmates on the fishing boat Miss Rosie Mae remember his prodigious capacity for rum and a gift for spinning yarns that helped captain and crew endure those tedious stretches on the open water. He left a loaded .45, an old photo from better times, and several manuscripts as the only clues to a life well lived.
But the tale doesn’t end there.
The task of curating the Jimmy Clifton series and bringing this gifted writer’s intriguing novels to light has been left to MICHAEL HAYES, Clifton’s only known living kin. As a longtime ad man, Hayes shares Clifton’s talents for weaving tall tales and stretching the truth.
LEARN MORE
To learn more about Jimmy Clifton, visit his website.
THE SILVER LININGS WEDDING DRESS AUCTION
By Mary Oldham
Everybody loves a wedding, Leslie more than others.
Two weeks before her wedding, a tragedy takes place and Leslie Westcott becomes a single woman once again. The pain of it all is palpable and the need to move forward in life takes time. But over the next few years, Leslie has no problem meeting Mr. Almost Right and accepts their proposal. After all, with the loss of her one true love no one would ever fill that void. Leslie must change what she wants with each new relationship, but what about love?
Fortunately, the thought of settling for less stops her, always in the nick of time. Though the end result, is a closet full of unworn wedding dresses and an aunt who owns a bridal shop and decides to have a charity auction to benefit a local women’s shelter. Join Leslie as she relives each voyage to love and decides which dresses she is ready to cast away. And what about her true love? Has he been there all along, and her engagement rings have sparkled too brightly to see him just beyond?
Maybe the love of her life has been there all along — she’ll have to look past the sparkle of her engagement rings and into the heart and soul of a good friend.
THE AUTHOR
Mary Oldham, is an award winning author, and three-time Golden Heart Finalist with the Romance Writers of America in the areas of Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense. Mary lives in Portland, Oregon when she is not sitting on her deck and looking at the Pacific in Yachats, Oregon, the Gem of the Oregon Coast.
LEARN MORE
Follow Mary Oldham on Facebook.
To learn more about Mary, visit her website.
WINGS AND WINDOWS
By Keishi Ando
In one small town, a miracle entwines the fates of three strangers.
After a series of early traumas, Kyle, a glazier, has grown used to a solitary existence. That changes the night a mysterious guest appears in his home. Their tentative friendship could offer him a path to healing—or rip open wounds he’s tried hard to forget.
As Emilia approaches her fortieth birthday, she’s never felt so lost. Stuck in a loveless marriage, her guilty pleasure is watching her neighbour work in his glazier’s workshop. As he gently cuts and sets panes of glass, Emilia wishes there was a way to mend the broken pieces of a human heart.
Close by, 17-year-old Mia has learned that being different isn’t easy. In fact, it’s torturous. Bullied relentlessly, she forms a radical plan to find freedom—along with someone who will help her escape. But danger is circling, and a devastating betrayal awaits.
Secrets and destinies collide as three lonely souls search for belonging and discover that even in life’s darkest moments, magic is possible.
