Tag Archives: Cancer

by | May 30, 2009 · 3:23 pm

Joan Medlicott. From the Heart of Covington. New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 2002.

From the Heart of Covington continues the stories of Hannah, Amelia, and Grace, older ladies who share a house in the fictional town of Covington, NC. In this, the third book in the series, a close friend’s cancer impacts all of the women, but each has her own issues to contend with. Amelia furthers her photography career and takes a trip to New York. Grace volunteers at the local elementary school, deals with her son’s rocky relationship, and faces a diabetes diagnosis. Hannah is reunited with her estranged daughter and the younger woman, Laura, comes to live in Covington after she is seriously injured in a boating disaster.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2002, Medlicott, Joan, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places

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by | April 22, 2009 · 2:06 pm

Ellyn Bache. Daughters of the Sea. Banks Channel Books, 2005.

Veronica, Guy and their daughter Simpson have made a life moving from one beach town to another, always in search of a better climate or a better construction job for Guy. When Veronica decides she’s finished with the nomadic existence, she and Simpson move into the home of an old friend in Whisper Springs, Maryland. Simpson settles into their new life and begins a relationship with a local. Veronica’s friend Ernie’s health is failing and she appreciates the help of the younger women. Although the move was her idea, Veronica gets restless and begins missing the sea and her husband. Most of the story is centered on the three women in Maryland, but readers also get the occasional glimpse of Guy as he works in the film industry in Wilmington.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2005, Bache, Ellyn, Coast, Dare, New Hanover

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by | March 22, 2009 · 9:11 am

Yvonne Lehman. Coffee Rings. Uhrichsville, OH: Barbour Publishing, 2004.

Four college girls go to the beach and cut loose. One of them dies. When the book opens, the remaining three friends are women in their early forties. Each of the friends has built a life, but all are still affected by what happened those many years ago. When the dead girl’s mother discovers she has terminal cancer, she asks her daughter’s friends to accompany her to the scene of the accident. All the women have secrets and guilty feelings; these come out. Religious faith enables the characters to achieve self-acceptance and forgiveness.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2004, Buncombe, Coast, Lehman, Yvonne, Mountains, Religious/Inspirational

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by | October 27, 2008 · 3:05 pm

Mary Alice Monroe. Time Is a River. New York: Pocket Books, 2008.

If your friend was recovering from breast cancer and sexual betrayal, would you offer her quiet time in a cabin where a murder might have taken place? What was Belle Carson thinking?!? She clearly wasn’t expecting her friend Mia to get interested in that old murder, the one that had caused so much pain to Belle’s family. But once Mia finds the diary of Belle’s grandmother, the accused murderer, she begins to ask questions and poke around in the library and in town, trying to uncover the truth about the accusations against Kate Watkins. Kate was not a murderer, but a proud, confident journalist and fly-fisher. Drawing strength from Kate’s life, Mia puts hers back together.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Buncombe, Coast, Monroe, Mary Alice, Mountains, Novels in Series, Romance/Relationship

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by | April 14, 2008 · 9:52 am

Penelope J. Stokes. Circle of Grace. New York: Doubleday, 2004.

On the day they graduated from college, four close friends–Grace, Liz, Tess, and Lovey–promised to keep in touch with each other using a “circle journal.” The plan was for each woman to write about her life and then pass it on to the next friend. For thirty years the women have been contributing to the journal and telling stories about successful careers, marriages, and families. When one of the diarists – a resident of Asheville – is diagnosed with cancer, she makes a confession to the others: she hasn’t always told the truth in the journal, letting it reflect her life as she had hoped it would be rather than how it has really turned out. Her candor leads to similar confessions and the four friends are drawn even closer together.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2004, Buncombe, Mountains, Stokes, Penelope J.

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by | March 13, 2008 · 9:58 am

Catherine Landis. Some Days There’s Pie. New York: St. Martins, 2002.

When Ruth Ritchie’s marriage falls apart, she flees Tennessee and ends up in the fictional eastern North Carolina town of Lawsonville. (There is a real Lawsonville in Stokes County near the Virginia border, but this is clearly not the one that Landis describes). Ruth, who has just turned twenty, is having a hard time getting by until she meets eighty-year-old Rose. Rose helps Ruth get a job at the local paper and the two become fast friends. Although Rose is facing lung cancer she is still feisty, and sees something of her younger self in Ruth. The two women throw themselves into the Lawsonville scene, engaging the oddball local characters and living life to the fullest.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2002, Coastal Plain, Landis, Catherine, Novels Set in Fictional Places

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by | · 9:58 am

Kaye Gibbons. A Virtuous Woman. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1989.

Ruby Pitt Woodrow and Blinking Jack Stokes tell, in alternating chapters, the stories of their lives. Ruby’s chapters are told from her perspective as she is dying of cancer at age 45, while Jack’s reminiscences are set during the period just after Ruby’s death. These stories are set largely on tobacco farms in eastern North Carolina and describe a fondly remembered marriage, which stands in contrast to the characters’ otherwise difficult lives.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1980-1989, 1989, Coastal Plain, Gibbons, Kaye

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by | · 9:58 am

Ellyn Bache. Riggs Park. New York: Harlequin Next, 2005.

When Barbara is diagnosed with cancer, she calls on her lifelong best friend Marilyn for support. Marilyn has problems of her own, but pushes these aside rushes to Washington, D.C. Together the two women explore their friendship and their past, uncovering along the way secrets from their childhood together in the Washington suburb of Riggs Park. Although most of the novel is set in the Washington area, it begins and ends at Marilyn’s home in Wrightsville Beach.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2005, Bache, Ellyn, Coast, New Hanover, Romance/Relationship

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