The Goodman's Five-Star Stories series is a collection of high-interest anthologies on 10 reading levels featuring well-known short stories from around the world. The selections provide hours of reading pleasure while improving reading and literature skills.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A richly textured portrait . . . an intimate look at a closed Orthodox community.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK It is 1976. And the tiny upstate New York town of Kaaterskill Falls is bustling with summer people in dark coats, fedoras, and long, modest dresses. Living side by side with Yankee year-rounders, they are the disciples of Rav Elijah Kirshner. Elizabeth Shulman is a restless wife and mother of five daughters; her imagination transcends her cloistered community. Across the street Andras Melish is drawn to Kaaterskill by his adoring older sisters. Comforted, yet crippled by his sisters’ love, he cannot overcome the ambivalence he feels toward his own children and his young wife. At the top of the hill, Rav Kirshner is nearing the end of his life. As he struggles to decide which of his sons should succeed him—the pious but stolid Isaiah or the brilliant but rebellious Jeremy—his followers wrestle with their future and their past. With this community, Allegra Goodman weaves magic. The nationally bestselling author of The Family Markowitz crafts a tale of family and tradition—one that confirms this author’s place as a virtuoso of her generation.

"After all the books I’ve come across on the subject of dieting, I was surprised to find that Nancy Goodman’s Surprise Me! actually opened up some new perspectives for me on the subject of emotional eating. This entertaining story combines the thought-provoking insights of a self-help book with the funny, unpredictable characters and situations of a popular novel." –Diane Tyrrel, bestselling author of THE INN AT HALF MOON BAY How can a girl figure out if she's choosing the right man to marry? Can a craving for food be part of a clue that leads her to her truth? Could the unhappy events and fears from her past be a “set up” for the ultimate surprise party? And… What if pain was not the curse, but the course? At Surprise Enterprise, Genie Burns masterminds off the wall surprise parties in nobody-would-suspect-it locations. Here, she takes crazy risks but it’s all within her plan, and under her control. Along comes Jeff. They slip into a passionate love where she loses all control. Meanwhile, Surprise Enterprise has just been contracted to throw a surprise party wedding by a client who prefers not to reveal his identity. As Genie works to get his bride down the aisle, her own life begins to take turns. Is Jeff the “the one” because he challenges Genie to heal the wounds from her past? Or is he the wrong one because he repeats them? We’ll find out in the end, and not a moment before, because what’s real in life screams… Surprise! If you liked Emily Giffin's SOMETHING BORROWED, you'll love SURPRISE ME!

The USA Today–bestselling author “has a real flair for writing romantic tension and sexy love scenes” in this sequel to Never Love a Lawman (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Her Heart Was Locked Away Rhyne Abbot is fierce, brave, and used to a life of isolation on her father’s spread on the outskirts of Reidsville, Colorado. But when, overcome with sickness, she collapses, she knows she must return to town if she is to have any hope of recovery. Only there is no place for her but the new doctor’s home, and he wants more than just to heal Rhyne. He wants her hand in marriage. Until One Man Found the Key Doctor Cole Monroe’s hands are already more than full with his orphaned little sister to look after, and yet somehow he can’t resist the magnetic pull of Rhyne’s bewitching eyes—or her tempting kiss. But convincing her to trust him won’t be easy. For Rhyne’s heart needs as much tender care as her ailing body. And the only cure is the thing she most fears: to let herself fall in love . . . “Delightful and romantic with enough intrigue and character building to be fun read.” —Fresh Fiction

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Emily and Jessamine Bach are opposites in every way: Twenty-eight-year-old Emily is the CEO of Veritech, twenty-three-year-old Jess is an environmental activist and graduate student in philosophy. Pragmatic Emily is making a fortune in Silicon Valley, romantic Jess works in an antiquarian bookstore. Emily is rational and driven, while Jess is dreamy and whimsical. Emily’s boyfriend, Jonathan, is fantastically successful. Jess’s boyfriends, not so much. National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Allegra Goodman has written a delicious novel about appetite, temptation, and holding on to what is real in a virtual world: love that stays.

The Goodman's Five-Star Stories series is a collection of high-interest anthologies on 10 reading levels featuring well-known short stories from around the world. The selections provide hours of reading pleasure while improving reading and literature skills.

The Goodman's Five-Star Stories series is a collection of high-interest anthologies on 10 reading levels featuring well-known short stories from around the world. The selections provide hours of reading pleasure while improving reading and literature skills.