Bøker av Susan Meissner

A Best Historical Fiction of Spring Pick by Amazon, PopSugar, AARP, and BookBub! A heartrending story about a young mother’s fight to keep her daughter, and the terrible injustice that tears them apart, by the USA Today bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things and The Last Year of the War.   California, 1938—When she loses her parents in an accident, sixteen-year-old Rosanne is taken in by the owners of the vineyard where she has lived her whole life as the vinedresser’s daughter. She moves into Celine and Truman Calvert’s spacious house with a secret, however—Rosie sees colors when she hears sound. She promised her mother she’d never reveal her little-understood ability to anyone, but the weight of her isolation and grief prove too much for her. Driven by her loneliness she not only breaks the vow to her mother, but in a desperate moment lets down her guard and ends up pregnant. Banished by the Calverts, Rosanne believes she is bound for a home for unwed mothers. But she soon finds out she is not going to a home of any kind, but to a place that seeks to forcibly take her baby – and the chance for any future babies – from her. Austria, 1947—After witnessing firsthand Adolf Hitler’s brutal pursuit of hereditary purity—especially with regard to “different children”—Helen Calvert, Truman’s sister, is ready to return to America for good. But when she arrives at her brother’s peaceful vineyard after decades working abroad, she is shocked to learn what really happened nine years earlier to the vinedresser’s daughter, a girl whom Helen had long ago befriended. In her determination to find Rosanne, Helen discovers a shocking American eugenics program—and learns that that while the war had been won in Europe, there are still terrifying battles to be fought at home.

Join bestselling author Susan Meissner and other 'Mimis' in this Christmas-season poem inspired by the traditional holiday traveling song 'Over the River and Through the Woods.' Modern families find their way to grandmother's house using all forms of transport to diverse locations to celebrate with Mimis, Omas, Gigis, and Nanas.

When farmers and pumpkin patch owners donate their extra pumpkins to the zoo, the animals chomp, chew, play, and give hearty hoorays for their favorite squishy squash! Grab a pumpkin and follow along as this read-aloud zoo book for preschoolers and elementary-age kids celebrates the fall season in the most entertaining way.

When her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Janvier eagerly takes in her sixteen year-old niece Tally. The girl is practically an orphan: motherless, and living with a father who raises Tally wherever he lands- in a Buick, a pizza joint, a horse farm-and regularly takes off on wild schemes. Amanda envisions that she, her husband Neil, and their two teenagers can offer the girl stability and a shot at a "normal” life, even though their own storybook lives are about to crumble.Seventeen-year-old Chase Janvier hasn't seen his cousin in years, and other than a vague curiosity about her strange life, he doesn't expect her arrival will affect him much-or interfere with his growing, disturbing interest in a long-ago house fire that plagues his dreams unbeknownst to anyone else. Tally and Chase bond as they interview two Holocaust survivors for a sociology project, and become startlingly aware that the whole family is grappling with hidden secrets, with the echoes of the past, and with the realization that ignoring tragic situations won't make them go away. Will Tally's presence blow apart their carefully-constructed world, knocking down the illusion of the white picket fence and reveal a hidden past that could destroy them all-or can she help them find the truth without losing each other?

To unge kvinner i Hollywoods gullalder finner gleden i et sterkt vennskap, men opplever også at sjalusi og svik får vennskapet til å slå sprekker. «Nattergalen i Sunset Boulevard» er historien om to studiosekretærer som arbeider på settet til en av demest berømte filmene gjennom tidene; «Tatt av vinden».Los Angeles, nåtid: En ikonisk, fjærprydet hatt som bæres av Scarlett O'Hara i «Tatt av vinden», dukker opp i Christine McAllisters vintage klesbutikk ved en feiltakelse. Hennes innsats for å returnere den til sin opprinnelige eier tar henne med på en reise mer fortryllende enn noen klassisk film.Los Angeles, 1938: Violet Mayfield reiser til i Hollywood for å få en ny start etter at drømmen om å stifte familie med ungdomskjæresten faller i grus. Hun får jobb på filmsettet til «Tatt av vinden», der hun møter den gåtefulle og ambisiøse Audrey Duvall, i sin tid en lovende stumfilmskuespiller som nå blir Violets sekretærkollega. Audreys store livsglede og deres felles eventyr i Hollywoods filmverden trollbinder Violet før de to kvinnenes sterkeste ønsker og drifter kolliderer. Hvor mye er Audrey og Violet villige til å ofre for vennskapet uten å sette sin egen lykke på spill? Valgene deres kommer til å pege dem resten av livet på godt og vondt.

From the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War comes a novel set during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, telling the story of a family reborn through loss and love.In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town, came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters-Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa-a chance at a better life.But just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. As the pandemic claims more than twelve thousand victims in their adopted city, they find their lives left with a world that looks nothing like the one they knew. But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope. Amidst the tragedy and challenges, they learn what they cannot live without-and what they are willing to do about it.As Bright as Heaven is the compelling story of a mother and her daughters who find themselves in a harsh world not of their making, which will either crush their resolve to survive or purify it.