Lily Wilk, a young artist, spends her time painting everything from fire hydrants to fancy fingernail designs in her small Massachusetts town, until the owner of a supermarket chain commissions a family portrait that helps Lily come to a new understanding of herself and her life

Lily Of The Valley

Literature & Fiction

Shea, Suzanne Strempek

United States

Atria

Lily Wilk always knew she was destined to be an artist - ever since she pulled a drawing kit from a grab bag on her tenth birthday. Now Lily's work is always in demand around her small Massachusetts town, where she makes her living painting fire hydrants, lettering diplomas, and applying "Gulls" and "Buoys" to restaurant bathroom doors. But when supermarket heiress Mary Ziemba commissions her to paint a family portrait, Lily senses her lifelong dream of creating a memorable masterpiece is finally within her grasp. What she discovers, however, is that dreams often take their own unexpected twists . . . and with each small and gentle brush stroke she applies to Mary Ziemba's painting, Lily learns more than she ever imagined about the meaning of friendship, family, and love. With a gift for creating fiction that is "rich with an unusual sweetness" (USA Today) and filled with wry humor, bestselling author Suzanne Strempek Shea delivers a poignant and unforgettable work of art in Lily of the Valley.

Lily of the Valley

Humor & Satire

Atria Books

Growing up in a small New England town, 14 year-old Donna Milewski had all she needed: a grandmother, Babci, whose fragrant cooking filled their home. . .her mother, Helen, who lovingly stitched outfits. . .and Adam, the most wonderful father a daughter could imagine, who dreamed she could one day lead an all-girl polka band. 
Then came Betty, a tiny and adorable five-year-old, sent from Poland by Adam's destitute brother. Bringing with her only a rubber doll's leg and her old-world charm, Betty became the little sister Donna never had -- and a threat to her father's love. During a long and painful rift, a dance of betrayal and hurt, Donna must look to her beloved polka music for the key to healing.

Hoopi Shoopi Donna

Advertising to sell her engagement ring after being left at the altar by a man who decided to enter the clergy instead, a young woman meets Randy, a recently engaged prospective buyer who keeps coming back to see her. Reprint. Tour.

Selling the Lite of Heaven

Summoned by her ailing Uncle Pal to operate his pony ring for a final season, a reluctant Robyn Panek returns to the beloved Massachusetts farm of her childhood, hoping to put to rest the dark events that had shattered her childhood more than twenty years earlier and uncover the mystery of her friend Lucy's sudden disappearance.

Around Again

When Robyn Panek is summoned by her ailing uncle Pal to operate his pony ring for one final season on his Massachusetts farm, her years away form the vacation spot of her youth seem an unbridgeable gap. But she is pulled by forces stronger than memory to piece together the events of that last childhood summer -- when a dark mystery swirled about her friend Lucy Dragon. They called her crazy, and Robyn must at last uncover the truth about Lucy's sudden disappearance -- and make peace with her own first love, Frankie. Now the future of Pal's six ponies, who circle the ring five times for a dollar a ride, is as uncertain as Robyn's own, as she confronts the past she ran from so long ago.

Literary

In the latest novel from the award-winning author of Around Again, an American takes an unexpected trip to Ireland and finds the woman she was meant to become. 
 Newly unemployed, Sophie White has nothing better to do when her recently widowed best friend, Gina, invites her along on a much-needed, postcrisis getaway. When, after only one day in Ireland, Gina decides she should do her grieving back at home, she urges Sophie to remain and make the most of the summer in Booley, the tiny seaside village that was their destination. 
 A job offer accepted on a whim lands her in the village's craft shop, and in the position once held by Finola O'Flynn, a woman who'd swiftly left town a few years before. Sophie takes on Finola's job of creating beaded bracelets, but also takes over Finola's abandoned home, then Finola's left-behind wardrobe, and finally, after her own episode of lost love, Finola's discarded man, charismatic shop owner Liam. But could Sophie -- or anyone -- ever take over the legendary place that her predecessor still holds in the hearts of Booley? 
 Friend, confidante, and guru to all -- literally a lifesaver to some -- even in her absence Finola continues to captivate. Her myth manages to reenergize Sophie, who passes along the gift through bracelets she infuses with invented "powers" that make the wearers believe they have what it takes to face life's challenges. But is Sophie powerful enough to face a whopper of her own when Finola returns to Booley and to the life she deserted? Does Sophie have the magic to make room in one tiny village for two women who want the very same life?

Becoming Finola

Songs from a Lead-Lined Room is a unique and remarkable book rooted in truth and raw experience, and the first memoir to focus on the personal experience of radiation treatment. As with Shea's best-selling fiction, her sharp and insightful wit and her reporter's eye for the most telling and sometimes quirky details inform every page. She shares what she learns about the process of her treatment, her bouts of despair, indignity, and fear, as well as the faux pas, the innocent blunders, and the compassion and caring of her family, friends, and fellow patients

Songs from a Lead-Lined Room: Notes--High and Low--from My Journey through Breast Cancer and Radiation

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Beacon Press

When Pope John Paul II died, Suzanne Strempek Shea, who had not been an active member of a church community for some years, recognized in his mourners a faith-filled passion that she longed to recapture in her own life. Shea, never one to do things in a conventional manner or by halves, set out on a pilgrimage to visit a different church every Sunday for a year-a journey that would take her through the broad spectrum of contemporary protestant Christianity practiced in this country. She began with a rousing Baptist Easter service in Harlem, traveled to Colorado's Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame for a sing-along service at the Cowboy Church, and flew to Houston for a multimedia experience at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church, the largest church in the country. She sat with the Shakers, and-in silence-with the Quakers; she sang often, danced, and even drew on one memorable occasion. Shea approached each congregation with the curiosity of a newcomer and with respect for each unique expression of faith, whether the sanctuary was a multimillion-dollar extravaganza, a centuries-old edifice, an abandoned building, or even an airport chapel. In her tour of more than thirty states, including Hawaii, Shea: * Knocked knees with President Jimmy Carter at his Plains, Georgia, Baptist church on Independence Day. * Joined the band at a San Francisco African Orthodox church that considers jazz legend John Coltrane a bona fide saint. * Got a wake-up call from Anne Graham Lotz, Billy Graham's preacher daughter, at a sprawling conservative church in South Carolina. * Followed the signs for a hot tub dealership that, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, has become a new Presbyterian church in Mississippi. * Collected tips on The Purpose Driven Life from Rick Warren at his famed Saddleback Church complex. * Knocked on the door of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Portland, Oregon. * Shared a pew with Milwaukee Bucks star Michael Redd at the Columbus, Ohio, church he purchased for his dad. * Had her feet washed by a Seventh-Day Adventist at a church in Connecticut. * Attended a three-hour service featuring speaking in tongues, faith healing, and dancing in the aisle at a Foursquare Gospel church. * Toured Joseph Smith's birthplace in Vermont and worshipped with his Mormon followers. Sundays in America is an essential guide for those seeking a new house for their worship as well as a colorful road trip for the armchair explorer, providing a vivid perspective on the practice and meaning of Christian faith as it is practiced throughout our land.

Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith

History

World

When Pope John Paul II died, Suzanne Strempek Shea, who had not been an active member of a church community for some years, recognized in his mourners a faith-filled passion that she longed to recapture in her own life. So she set out on a pilgrimage to visit a different church every Sunday for one year-a journey that would take her through the broad spectrum of contemporary Protestant Christianity practiced in this country. From a rousing Easter Baptist service in Harlem, to Colorado's Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame for a sing-along at the Cowboy Church; from a roofless Episcopal church in Hawaii, to a storefront African orthodox church where jazz legend John Coltrane is considered a bona fide saint; from the largest church in the country to a small-town church packed for a Sunday school class taught by Jimmy Carter, Shea toured more than thirty states in search of the meaning of Christian faith to the many who practice it. The result, Sundays in America, is an essential guide for those seeking a new house for their worship as well as a colorful road trip for the armchair explorer.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shea, Suzanne Strempek. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Shea, Suzanne Strempek

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shea, Suzanne Strempek. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Lily Of The Valley

Lily of the Valley

Hoopi Shoopi Donna

Selling the Lite of Heaven

Around Again

Around Again

Becoming Finola

Songs from a Lead-Lined Room: Notes--High and Low--from My Journey through Breast Cancer and Radiation

Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith

Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith