Giulia Balducci Book order (chronological)

Matt Whyman, scrittore di professione, è uno che ama la vita casalinga e la tranquillità. Peccato che sua moglie Emma, donna in carriera, sia di tutt’altro avviso: a causa di un’infanzia troppo solitaria, predilige di gran lunga il caos di una famiglia molto allargata. Così, oltre a quattro figli, casa Whyman ospita due felini – uno socievole e uno perfido –, un cane che sembra un lupo della steppa e un mucchio selvaggio di galline. Finché uno dei gatti (quello socievole) muore investito da un’auto. Chi arriverà al suo posto? si chiede con terrore Matt. Quando Emma gli manda una mail con l’immagine di due piccolissimi porcellini e il messaggio: “Che carini” seguito da ben tre punti esclamativi, Matt capisce quale sarà il suo destino. In men che non si dica, ecco due baldanzosi minimaialini fare il loro ingresso a casa Whyman. Prima vittima del loro entusiasmo: il divano. È solo l’inizio di una serie di esilaranti vicissitudini, in cui il povero scrittore in cerca di quiete dovrà vedersela con i due diavoletti rosa, senza nemmeno poter dire al resto della famiglia: “O me o loro!” perché la risposta la conosce già- Oink! è un libro tenero e divertentissimo, traboccante di buffe avventure e di amore per gli animali, anche quelli più piccoli, rosa e scatenati. Come Io & Marley , un libro che fa ridere, sorridere e tocca decisamente il cuore.

How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can't even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa.Dewey's story starts in the worst possible way. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the returned book slot at the Spencer Public Library. He was found the next working by library director Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her heart, and the hearts of the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of hem in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next nineteen years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer with this enthusiasm, warmth, humility (for a cat), and, above all, his sixth sense about who needed him most.As his fame grew from town to town, then state to state, and finally, amazingly, worldwide, Dewey became more than just a friend; he became a source of pride for an extraordinary Heartland farming town pulling its way slowly back from the greatest crisis in its long history.

Having her own detective agency would grant her the independence she craved and a chance to prove her worth to those who dismissed her. In present-day Beijing, Mei Wang is a modern, independent woman with her own apartment, car, and a business that includes a male secretary. Her experience with China's Ministry for Public Security has provided her with valuable insight into the complexities of law enforcement, but it is her intuition and ability to listen that establish her as Beijing's first successful female private investigator. Mei's past is marked by darkness; she last saw her father at a labor camp when she was six. This experience shapes her rejection of the power plays and cultural norms that her family embraces. When a family friend, "Uncle" Chen, hires her to locate a valuable Han dynasty jade believed to have been looted during the Cultural Revolution, Mei embarks on a delicate investigation. The search takes her through banquet halls, back alleys, and seedy gambling dens, revealing not only the jade's troubled history but also her family's hidden secrets and her own painful past. This first novel in a captivating detective series offers a thrilling mystery intertwined with a rich exploration of modern China.

Born on the shores of Lake Ontario, Grania O'Neill suffers a childhood illness that destroys her hearing. Grania's life without sound is also a life bounded by a powerful family love that tries to protect her from suffering. But when it becomes clear that Grania can no longer thrive among the hearing, her family sends her to the Ontario School for the Deaf. There, protected from the often unforgiving world outside, she learns sign language and speech. And there she meets Jim Lloyd, a hearing man, and the two, in wonderment, begin to create a new emotional vocabulary that encompasses both sound and silence. But a war is raging on the other side of the world. Only two weeks after their wedding, Jim must leave home to serve as a stretcher-bearer on the blood-soaked battlefields of Flanders. During this long and brutal war of attrition, Jim and Grania are pulled to the centre of cataclysmic events that will alter civilisation forever.