Your Oasis On Flame Lake

From the author of the NEW YORK TIMES bestselling ANGRY HOUSEWIVES EATING BON BONS

Lorna Landvik is an actor and comedian who has written and produced plays in which she also performs. She is the bestselling author of Patty Jane's House of Curl, Your Oasis on Flame Lake, The Tall Pine Polka, Welcome to the Great Mysterious, Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons and Oh My Stars. She is married and the mother of two daughters.

Best friends fast approaching forty in the small Minnesota town of Flame Lake, Devera and BiDi, were recently voted 'Least Changed' at their twentieth high school reunion - a label neither one finds very appealing. For each craves a change in her life: Devera wants a break from her humdrum marital routine; BiDi longs to reconnect with her distant fourteen-year-old daughter (the only girl on the high-school hockey team), not to mention jump-starting a sex drive stuck in neutral. 
 
So when Devera's husband decides to fulfil his longtime dream of opening a nightclub in his basement, Your Oasis on Flame Lake arrives not a moment too soon. Nothing fancy, it's just a BYOB joint where you can hang out, sing, dance, tell jokes and be yourself. But then an unexpected crisis throws both families into chaos, forcing them all to take stock of their lives - and learn the power of forgiveness.

The Tall Pine Polka

Endearing ... This is a very funny book ... It is to Landvik's credit that comedy and tragedy blend seamlessly ... There is music in this story

Lorna Landvik has created a hilarious cast of characters. Join them at the Cup O'Delight café for a good time

Fannie Flagg, author of FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLE STOP CAFÉ

Life, they say, is a state of mind. In the small town of Tall Pine, Minnesota, that state of mind is found at the Cup O'Delight cafe. The locals gather here for what they call the Tall Pine Polka, an event in which heavenly coffee, good food, and that feeling of being alive among friends inspires both body and soul to dance. 
 
Escaping to Tall Pine from an abusive husband, Lee answered the 'What am I going to do with my life?' question by opening the cafe. Among the regulars are Miss Penk and Frau Katt, the town's only lesbian couple ('Well, we're za only ones who admit it.'); Pete, proprietor of the Shoe Shack, who spends his nights crafting beautiful shoes to present to Lee, along with his declarations of love; Mary, whose bad poetry can clear the cafe in seconds, and most important of all, Lee's best friend Fenny, a smart and sassy twenty-two-year-old going on eighty. 
 
Then Hollywood 'discovers' Tall Pine. It seems the sleepy town is the perfect location for a romantic comedy. And Fenny, pounced on like a bone in a yard full of hungry dogs is evidently that rarity in Hollywood: a 'natural'. Lee and Fenny are to find their friendship put to the test as events push their hearts in unexplored directions - where endings really can turn into new beginnings...

Oh My Stars

A warm and compelling novel from the NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of ANGRY HOUSEWIVES EATING BON BONS

Tall, slender Violet Mathers is growing up in the Great Depression, which could just as well define her state of mind. Abandoned by her mother as a child, mistreated by her father, and teased by her schoolmates, the lonely girl finds solace in artistic pursuits. It's only when she's hired by the town's sole feminist to work the night shift in the local factory that Violet comes into her name and blooms. Accepted by her co-workers, the teenager enters the happiest phase of her life, until a terrible accident causes her to retreat once again into her lonely shell. 
 
Realising that she has only one choice, Violet boards a bus heading west to California. But when the bus crashes in North Dakota, it seems that fate is having another cruel laugh at Violet's expense. This time, though, Violet laughs back. She and her fellow passengers are rescued by two men: Austin Sykes, who Violet is certain is the blackest man ever to set foot on the North Dakota prairie, and Kjel Hedstrom, who inspires feelings Violet has never before felt. Kjel and Austin are musicians whose sound is like no other, and with pluck, verve and wit, Violet becomes part of their quest to make a new kind of music together. 
 
OH, MY STARS is Lorna Landvik's most ambitious novel yet, with a cast of characters whose travails and triumphs you'll long remember. It is a tale of love and hope, bigotry and betrayal, loss and discovery - as Violet, who's always considered herself a minor character in her own life story, emerges as a heroine you'll laugh with, cry with and, most important, cheer for all the way.

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

The NEW YORK TIMES bestseller - a thoroughly engaging chronicle of friendship and the substantive place it holds in women's lives

This book deserves to be read on the strength of its title alone. Spanning 40 years, from the swinging 60s up to the 90s, this is a big-hearted slice of life that's forever teetering between tears and laughter

A love for books and a zest for life bring together five women in a lively story as delectable as a five-pound box of chocolates

From the title onwards, this has DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD written all over it. It works

Sometimes life is like a bad waiter - it serves you exactly what you don't want. The women of Freesia Court have come together at life's table, fully convinced that there is nothing that good coffee, delectable desserts and a strong shoulder can't fix. Laughter is the glue that holds them together - the foundation of a book group they call AHEB (Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons) - an unofficial club that becomes a lifeline. 
 
The five women each have a story to tell. There's Faith, the newcomer, a housewife and mother who harbours a terrible secret; big, beautiful Audrey, the resident sex queen who knows that with good posture and attitude you can get away with anything; Merit, the shy doctor's wife with the face of an angel and the private hell of an abusive husband; Kari, a wise woman with a wonderful laugh who knows that the greatest gifts appear after life's fiercest storms; and finally, Slip, activist and adventurer, a tiny spitfire who looks trouble straight in the eye and challenges it to arm wrestle. 
 
Holding on through forty eventful years - through the swinging Sixties, the turbulent Seventies, the anything-goes Eighties, the nothing's-impossible Nineties, to the present day - they take the plunge into the chaos that inevitably comes to those with the temerity to stay alive and kicking.

Lorna Landvik

Diva Geneva Jordan has performed for millions on stage, screen and television but now has a leading role in Minnesota. She has agreed to look after her thirteen-year-old nephew, a boy with Down's syndrome, while his parents take a long-overdue break. Though Geneva and her sister, Ann, are as different as night and day ('I being night, of course, dark and dramatic'), Geneva remembers she had a family before she had a star on her door. But so accustomed is she to playing the lead, finding herself a supporting actress in someone else's life is strange and unexplored territory. Then the discovery of an old scrapbook that she and her sister created long ago starts her thinking of things beyond fame. For THE GREAT MYSTERIOUS is a collection of thoughts and feelings dedicated to answering life's BIG questions - far outside the spotlight's glow...

Lorna Landvik

Books by Lorna Landvik

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