New Releases by Sarah Stewart

A woman's poignant tale of resilience unfolds, as she navigates life's tumultuous sea of grief and solitude. Brimming with love, she confronts unrequited affections and private burdens, yet finds strength in vulnerability. Her journey of loss, despair, and self-discovery is a profound exploration of the human spirit's capacity for forgiveness and healing. Amidst heartbreak, friendships blossom, and peace is sought, revealing the courage required to release past wounds. This narrative is both a testament to the transformative power of grace and an inspiring beacon for those wrestling with their own concealed struggles, offering hope that joy can triumph over life's trials.

In this sequel to Taylor’s lyrical series debut, Agony Hill, Detective Frank Warren and his formerly CIA-connected neighbor Alice Bellows return to investigate the death of a diplomat. It's November of 1965 and the second weekend of Vermont's regular deer season when Vermont State Police detective Franklin Warren is called out to what looks like an accidental shooting at The Ridge Club, an exclusive men's hunting and fishing club for congressmen, diplomats, judges, and titans of industry: a former ambassador has been shot while out hunting. With the war in Vietnam picking up speed on the other side of the world, Warren quickly realizes that many of the club’s members are powerful men who may have ulterior motives and connections in high places. While Warren's suspicions about the club members build, his neighbor Alice Bellows is throwing a dinner party, preparing for Thanksgiving, and worrying about her pregnant friend and fellow widow, Sylvie Weber, whose due date is coming up. When Alice's old handler and friend, Arthur Crannock, unexpectedly shows up in Bethany, Alice begins to wonder whether his presence has anything to do with the death at the hunting club. As an early season snowstorm bears down on Bethany, knocking out power and phone lines and blocking the roads, Warren and his assistant, Trooper Pinky Goodrich, are trapped at the Ridge Club, likely along with a killer, and Alice, increasingly fearful that her past in the intelligence world is no longer in the past, will have to act fast to save Sylvie and her baby. Sarah Stewart Taylor’s historical series combines the intricacy of a satisfying mystery with keen observation of a time and place during great transformation and upheaval.

Enter the world of 1960s Bethany, Vermont in this suspenseful short story featuring characters from the forthcoming Agony Hill. It's mud season in Bethany, Vermont. As spring nears, the thawing ground and melting snow-pack have created muddy, impassable roads. It's not unusual to see a driver pushing their car or going for help. But a car with Pennsylvania plates has been completely abandoned, still stuck in the mud. Alice Bellows, an inquisitive widow who seems to know everything going on in town, can't help but wonder what would lead someone to abandon their car like that. All that's left in the car are two suitcases sitting in the trunk, no registration or keys. The police aren't too concerned about the abandoned car, but Alice thinks there's more to the story. Not sure what she'll find or who may get hurt, she takes it upon herself to find the car's owner and what they're hiding in her small town.

From friendships to Facebook to far-off countries, what do we do when our lives seem mired in conflict? How do we find connection when our differences are constantly on display and even exacerbated by algorithms and echo chambers? How do we build a kinder society? If you are tired of the anxiety, frustration, and fear that pervade your connections with other people, both online and in real life, Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers want you to know one thing--you are not alone. In this book they will help you understand the powerful connections you have with other people on a personal, community-based, national, and even international level. Then they show you how to - engage your family with a spirit of curiosity - listen closely to the anxieties and fears of your friends - explore shared values within your community - understand your work as a citizen in a diverse country - hold lightly those things that are beyond your control around the world The status quo isn't working. If you long to be a peacemaker and a positive influence in your spheres, Now What? is your door to a future that is characterized by hope, love, and connection despite our differences.

“Sarah Stewart Johnson interweaves her own coming-of-age story as a planetary scientist with a vivid history of the exploration of Mars in this celebration of human curiosity, passion, and perseverance.”—Alan Lightman, author of Einstein’s Dreams WINNER OF THE PHI BETA KAPPA AWARD FOR SCIENCE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Times (UK) • Library Journal “Lovely . . . Johnson’s prose swirls with lyrical wonder, as varied and multihued as the apricot deserts, butterscotch skies and blue sunsets of Mars.”—Anthony Doerr, The New York Times Book Review Mars was once similar to Earth, but today there are no rivers, no lakes, no oceans. Coated in red dust, the terrain is bewilderingly empty. And yet multiple spacecraft are circling Mars, sweeping over Terra Sabaea, Syrtis Major, the dunes of Elysium, and Mare Sirenum—on the brink, perhaps, of a staggering find, one that would inspire humankind as much as any discovery in the history of modern science. In this beautifully observed, deeply personal book, Georgetown scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson tells the story of how she and other researchers have scoured Mars for signs of life, transforming the planet from a distant point of light into a world of its own. Johnson’s fascination with Mars began as a child in Kentucky, turning over rocks with her father and looking at planets in the night sky. She now conducts fieldwork in some of Earth’s most hostile environments, such as the Dry Valleys of Antarctica and the salt flats of Western Australia, developing methods for detecting life on other worlds. Here, with poetic precision, she interlaces her own personal journey—as a female scientist and a mother—with tales of other seekers, from Percival Lowell, who was convinced that a utopian society existed on Mars, to Audouin Dollfus, who tried to carry out astronomical observations from a stratospheric balloon. In the process, she shows how the story of Mars is also a story about Earth: This other world has been our mirror, our foil, a telltale reflection of our own anxieties and yearnings. Empathetic and evocative, The Sirens of Mars offers an unlikely natural history of a place where no human has ever set foot, while providing a vivid portrait of our quest to defy our isolation in the cosmos.

More than ever, politics seem to be driven by discord. People sitting together in pews every Sunday feel like strangers and loved ones at the dinner table feel like enemies. Toxic political dialogue, hate-filled rants on social media, and agenda-driven news stories have become the new norm. But it doesn't have to be this way. In I Think You're Wrong (But I'm Listening), two working moms from opposite ends of the political spectrum teach us that politics don't have to divide us. Instead, we can bring the same care and respect to policy discussions that we bring to the rest of our lives. Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers, co-hosts of Pantsuit Politics, recently named an Apple Podcasts Show of the Year, give you all of the tools you need to: Respect the dignity of every person Recognize that issues are nuanced and can't be reduced to political talking points Listen in order to understand Lead with grace and patience Join Sarah from the left and Beth from the right as they teach you that people from opposing political perspectives truly can have calm, grace-filled conversations with one another. Praise for I Think You're Wrong (But I'm Listening): "Sarah and Beth are an absolute gift to our culture right now. Not only do they offer balanced perspectives from each political ideology, but they teach us how to dialogue well, without sacrificing our humanity." --Jen Hatmaker, New York Times bestselling author and speaker "Sarah from the left and Beth from the right serve as our guides through conflict and complexity, delivering us into connection. I wish every person living in the United States would read this compelling book, from the youngest voter to those holding the highest office." --Emily P. Freeman, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Next Right Thing

This latest volume in "The Idea of Iran" series concentrates on the Sasanian period. Seizing power from the previous dynasty - the Parthians - the Sasanians ruled Iran and most of the ancient Near East from 224 until 642 CE. They are particularly fascinating because of their adherence to Zoroastrianism, an ancient dualistic Iranian religion named after the prophet Zarathustra (or, in Greek, Zoroaster). The Sasanians expressed the divine aspect of their rule in a variety of forms, such as on coins, rock reliefs and silver plates, and architecture and the arts flourished under their aegis. Sasanian military success brought them into conflict with Rome, and later Byzantium. Their empire eventually collapsed under the force of the Arab army in AD 642, when Zoroastrianism was replaced with Islam.Engaging with all the major aspects of Sasanian culture, twelve eminent scholars address subjects which include: early Sasanian art and iconography; early Sasanian coinage; religion and identity in the Sasanian empire; later Sasanian orality and literacy; and state and society in late antique Iran. The volume in question arguably comprises the most complete and comprehensive treatment of the Sasanian civilization yet to be published in English.

Questions surrounding the provenance of a Harvard museums Egyptian artifacts lead Sweeney St. George to solve mysteries past and present in the fourth book in this acclaimed series by an Agatha Award-finalist. Martins Press.

By the author-and-illustrator team of the bestselling The Library Lydia Grace Finch brings a suitcase full of seeds to the big gray city, where she goes to stay with her Uncle Jim, a cantankerous baker. There she initiates a gradual transformation, bit by bit brightening the shop and bringing smiles to customers' faces with the flowers she grows. But it is in a secret place that Lydia Grace works on her masterpiece -- an ambitious rooftop garden -- which she hopes will make even Uncle Jim smile. Sarah Stewart introduces readers to an engaging and determined young heroine, whose story is told through letters written home, while David Small's illustrations beautifully evoke the Depression-era setting. The Gardener is a 1997 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and a 1998 Caldecott Honor Book.

As gravestone expert Sweeney St. George tours burial sites of the Civil War, she stops to watch a battlefield reenactment in Massachusetts. There, she meets Pres Whiting, a boy whose family is in the gravestone business. When Pres discovers a dead man in a Revolutionary War-era British soldier's uniform, Sweeney and Cambridge homicide detective Tim Quinn jump on the case. While they search for clues regarding the dead body, Sweeney and Quinn investigate other strange events. While Sweeney looks into the 1775 disappearance of militiaman, Quinn looks into a current missing persons case with alarming ties to the past. As they try to uncover how their own investigations are related to the body found in the woods, Sweeney and Quinn get a little too close for comfort -- to each other and to murder.

Newcomer Sarah Stewart Taylor delivers a compelling and atmospheric cozy mystery that introduces Sweeney St. George, an art historian in Boston with a special interest in the art of death. Sweeney becomes interested in Byzantium, Vermont, an art colony that flourished in the late nineteenth century, when she comes upon a photograph of the striking gravestone of a girl who drowned, and may have been murdered, in 1890. The stone is in a tiny cemetery surrounded by other beautiful, if unremarkable, headstones, some dating back hundreds of years. But the unsigned sculpture that marks this young woman's grave is of extremely high quality and the artist is unrecognizable. Sweeney is soon hooked, not only on the mystery of who created the beautiful sculpture but also on the details of the events surrounding the girl's death. When the friend who showed her the gravestone invites Sweeney to visit his relatives in Byzantium for Christmas, she jumps at the chance, knowing full well that the girl's murder has achieved the status of mythology in the town and hoping she'll be able to uncover new information. But by the time they arrive, her interest in the girl and the sculpture has gotten around town and, in fact, seems to have disturbed a killer. For not long after Sweeney arrives, one of the girl's descendants is murdered, shot and left lying in the cemetery. Taylor has written a remarkably accomplished debut mystery in the traditional cozy vein, and she's sure to win over legions of fans with O' Artful Death.

BURY THE CORPSE, MOURN THE DEAD, Sweeney St. George concedes that having lunch in Boston's Mount Auburn Cemetery might be a bit macabre. Yet the graveyard fits her interests as an art professor with a specialty in cemetery statuary and mourning jewelry. And although she doesn't yet realize it, this historic burial ground is one of the last places on earth her favorite student, Brad Putnam, scion of a famous Boston family, sees before someone murders him. AND TRACK DOWN A KILLER... Because of her expertise, the Boston police ask Sweeney to help them track down the antique jewelry found with Brad's body. Her investigation soon leads to chilling information about the influential Putnams, an earlier death, and Brad's secrets. Complicating everything is her attraction to Brad's rakishly charming older brother Jack. Now, Sweeney St. George is about to walk a dark and dangerous path...where passion can be dangerous and where a killer waits. "Sarah Stewart Taylor has a deft touch with atmosphere, especially if you like graveyard trivia." -Charlotte Observer www.minotaurbooks.com

This downloadable report reviews a number of parenting programmes and provides insight into the ways in which parents find the programmes helpful.

This guide to Malta, Gozo and Comina includes: topographical walking maps; fold-out touring maps; many short walks and picnic suggestions - suitable for hot summer days and for those with young children; and an update service with specific route-change information.

Meet an unforgettable bibliophile Elizabeth Brown doesn't like to play with dolls and she doesnt like to skate. What she does like to do is read books. Lots of books. The only problem is that her library has gotten so big she can't even use her front door anymore. What should Elizabeth Brown do? Start her own public library, of course! With charming verse and watercolors Sarah Stewart and David Small celebrate one of America's oldest and finest institutions.