Troy Jacobson has always tried to stay invisible; the Snake, the palsy he has wrestled with his entire life, usually has other ideas. But in the spring of 1969, Troy finds a place where he can be accepted when he and two old friends, Jesse and Coleman, decide to start a commune of their own in Denton, Texas. They bring in other friends and lovers and it works for a few months until the hot summer day when Coleman hits on a girl that Jesse brings home from a gig. R.E., Coleman's girlfriend and the one steadying influence in his life, tries to help him balance the demons that drive him to make all the wrong choices. When an expensive car pulls up outside one morning, the men in suits inside set in motion a series of events that take them back into family histories that range from the Utopian communes of the 1850s, to the early days of the Beats, and to the mansions of the ultra-rich in Fort Worth, and then forward onto roads leading away from Texas and out west into the unknown.

SLOW BURN It began as an anonymousflirtation. Storm raging, lightsflickering, two stranded travelersdecided to share uninhibitedconversation—but no names—during a stolen encounter. Talking turned intokissing…and the need to know each other's names. Inan instant, Boone Devlin and Erin Frye discoveredthey weren't exactly strangers. And Boone discovered that Erin was a virgin.Only fate could have seen fit to land bachelorhoodlovin'Boone in bed with the marriage-mindedmanager of the Texas ranch he'd inherited andintended to sell. Suddenly, his best-laid plans promisedto be the ultimate betrayal. Because Boone wasstarting to suspect that he and Erin had created a lotmore than sparks….

Moving to America turns H&à's life inside out. For all the 10 years of her life, H&à has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by, and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. H&à and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, H&à discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape, and the strength of her very own family. This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.

A strange sojourn by an innocent girl.

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