A new book by one of the world’s foremost writers, Isabel Allende, always garners attention. Allende, originally from Chile but a U.S. citizen for the past quarter century, has a new novel “A Long Petal of the Sea.” 
It’s a novel about enduring through war, exile, and troubled times as Victor Dalmau flees from Spain after the defeat of the Republican forces for which he fought. Marrying his brother’s pregnant widow, Victor eventually ends up in Chile. The epic spans the years 1938 to 1994.
A mural ties together two artists in different time periods in “Big Lies in a Small Town” by Diane Chamberlain. In 1939, Anna has been chosen to paint a mural which is never installed. In 2018, Morgan, an ex-convict who took the fall for a crime she didn’t commit, is hired to restore the mural. She wonders about Anna and what happened to her and her mural, and also why a philanthropist she never met would direct his daughter in his will to hire Morgan for the project.
In “You Were There Too” by Colleen Oakley, Mia has been having dreams about the same man since she was in college. After three miscarriages and the death of one of her doctor husband’s patients, her husband Harrison falls into a depression which troubles their marriage.
One day they encounter one of Harrison’s patients, and with her is the man from her dreams. What’s more, it turns out he had been dreaming about her, too. Their quest to discover the meaning of the dreams affects everyone in their lives.
A visit from the antiques TV show “Pickin’ Fortunes” may save a Wichita antique mall on the verge of bankruptcy in “Heart of Junk” by Luke Geddes. Unfortunately, the attention surrounding the disappearance of a little girl, beauty pageant star Lindy Bobo, may cause the show to pass them by. Mall owner Keith enlists the quirky cast of characters who are the mall’s vendors to save the day by finding Lindy. One of them, however, already knows more than he’s telling.
Colin O’Brady is a champion triathlete and mountain climber who in 2018 completed the first solo crossing of Antarctica.
His competition with a more experienced explorer, the treacherous journey, and the fury of the Antarctic make a gripping story. O’Brady writes of his experience in “The Impossible First.”
