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Giants in the earth: the California redwoods
By Peter Johnstone, Peter E. Palmquist. 2001
Literary anthology of stories, poems, natural history compositions, and articles selected from three hundred years of writing about the California…
redwoods. Authors Walt Whitman, John Muir, Jack London, Tom Wolfe, Armistead Maupin, and others who visited the groves felt inspired to write about their experiences and feelingsCrooked Creek
By Maximilian Werner. 2011
2012 Eric Hoffer Book Awards for General Fiction Honorable Mention2011 Utah Book Award FinalistCrooked Creek takes place during the latter…
part of westward expansion and chronicles the lives (and deaths) of the Wood family. The Woods-Preston and Sara-must flee Arizona when they, along with Sara's parents and little brother Jasper, unwittingly get caught up in the plunder and sale of American Indian corpses and funerary objects. Preston, Sara, and Jasper end up in the Heber Valley of Utah, where they seek the support of Sara's Uncle Neff until they can be reunited with Sara's mother and father. But from the moment they ride into Heber, Preston and Sara learn that life in the valley is not as it appears, and that no matter how far we run, we cannot escape the past. Maximilian Werner is the author of Black River Dreams, a collection of literary fly fishing essays that won the 2008 Utah Arts Council's Original Writing Competition for Nonfiction: Book. Mr. Werner's poems, fiction, creative nonfiction, and essays have appeared in several journals and magazines, including Matter Journal: Edward Abbey Edition, Bright Lights Film Journal, The North American Review, ISLE, Weber Studies, Fly Rod and Reel, and Columbia. He lives in Salt Lake City with his wife and two children and teaches writing at the University of Utah."Maximilian Werner is a fresh and grounded writer, a welcome and original new voice." -Thomas McGuane, author of Driving on the Rim"Here in the deep measured prose of Max Werner is a western story, harsh and lush as the old world it depicts. Crooked Creek shows again that one of the natural laws of the wilderness--along with wind and stone and animals and family--is violence. Just as wind and water shaped the stone, trouble shaped these men. With its compelling, layered story, this rich book is a reader's pleasure." -Ron Carlson, author of The Signal"Max Werner's Crooked Creek offers a haunting voyage into the past and into living landscapes sharpened by western light, resonating with the work of such authors as Cormac McCarthy and Wallace Stegner. A narrative of the vitality of family bonds, it is also a tale of the heroic struggle to carry the burden of memory and to transform history's nightmares into visions of possibility, as Octavio Paz once argued was the high calling of literature. Crooked Creek reminds us of the tough aesthetic that is required to sustain hope in family, in community, and in the staggering and heartbreaking beauty of nature that Werner's prose powerfully illuminates, while also reckoning with the dark sins of betrayal and violence that are the legacies of the American West. Werner convinces us that no meaningful sense of place is possible otherwise."-George Handley, author of Home Waters: A Year of Recompenses on the Provo RiverMahabharata: A Modern Retelling
By Wendy Doniger, Vinay Dharwadker, Carole Satyamurti. 2014
"Astonishing. . . . [Satyamurti's Mahabharata] brings [the] past alive . . . as though it were a novel in…
finely crafted verse."--Vinay Dharwadker Originally composed approximately two thousand years ago, the Mahabharata tells the story of a royal dynasty, descended from gods, whose feud over their kingdom results in a devastating war. But it contains much more than conflict. An epic masterpiece of huge sweep and magisterial power, "a hundred times more interesting" than the Iliad and the Odyssey, writes Wendy Doniger in the introduction, the Mahabharata is a timeless work that evokes a world of myth, passion, and warfare while exploring eternal questions of duty, love, and spiritual freedom. A seminal Hindu text, which includes the Bhagavad Gita, it is also one of the most important and influential works in the history of world civilization. Innovatively composed in blank verse rather than prose, Carole Satyamurti's English retelling covers all eighteen books of the Mahabharata. This new version masterfully captures the beauty, excitement, and profundity of the original Sanskrit poem as well as its magnificent architecture and extraordinary scope.Betty: The International Bestseller
By Tiffany McDaniel. 2020
'Breahtaking'Vogue'So engrossing! Betty is a page-turning Appalachian coming-of-age story steeped in Cherokee history, told in undulating prose that settles right…
into you'Naoise Dolan, Sunday Times bestselling author of Exciting Times 'I felt consumed by this book. I loved it, you will love it' Daisy Johnson, Booker Prize shortlisted author of Everthing Under'I loved Betty: I fell for its strong characters and was moved by the story it portrayed' Fiona Mozley, Booker Prize shortlisted author of Elmet 'A girl comes of age against the knife.' So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty and violence - both from outside the family and also, devastatingly, from within. When her family's darkest secrets are brought to light, Betty has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters in her rural town of Breathed, Ohio.Despite the hardship she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters and her father's brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all she bears witness to, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write.A heartbreaking yet magical story, Betty is a punch-in-the-gut of a novel - full of the crushing cruelty of human nature and the redemptive power of words. 'Not a story you will soon forget' Karen Joy Fowler, Booker Prize shortlisted author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves 'Shot through with moonshine, Bible verses, and folklore, Betty is about the cruelty we inflict on one another, the beauty we still manage to find, and the stories we tell in order to survive' Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow ChildNina X
By Ewan Morrison. 2019
Winner of the Saltire Literary Award Fiction Book of the Year'Literary gold . . . Morrison has published his masterpiece'…
Sunday Times'Sensational. Like nothing I've ever read. A tour de force' Ian RankinNina X has never been outside. She has never met another child.Nina X has no books, no toys and no privacy.Nina X has no idea what the outside world is like.Nina X has a lot to learn.Nina X has no mother and no father; she has Comrade Chen, and Comrades Uma, Jeni and Ruth. Her closest emotional connection is with the birds she sees when she removes the plasterboard that covers her bedroom window. Comrade Chen has named her The Project; she is being raised entirely separated from the false gods of capitalism and the cult of the self. He has her record everything in her journal, to track her thoughts. To keep her ideology pure, her words are erased, over and over again. But that was before. Now Nina is in Freedom, and all the rules have changed. She has to remember that everything is opposite to what she was told, and yet Freedom seems to be a very confusing and dangerous place'This moving tale of growing up in a Maoist cult, and the traumatic aftermath, explores ideas of freedom, control and identity with warmth and humour' Alex Preston, Observer'Amazing . . . There are few writers left in Britain who have his ambition, vision and empathy. Nina is marvellous creation and this is an important novel' Irvine Welsh'Compelling. Chilling' Lionel ShriverIcebound Summer
By Sally Carrighar. 1953
Storm Birds
By Einar Karason. 2018
"This gripping novel is as good at describing the magnificent seascapes and the unforgiving elements as it is at examining…
the inner lives of the besieged crew, toiling ceaselessly against implacable nature" -Financial Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR"Gripping and Exciting" The Sunday Times BOOKS OF THE YEARIn February 1959, several Icelandic trawlers were caught in a storm off Newfoundland's Grand Banks. What happened there is the inspiration for this novel. Not since The Perfect Storm has there been a book which captures the sheer drama and terror of a crisis at sea. Karason is an exceptional storyteller, an Icelandic Erskine Caldwell or William Faulkner.The side trawler Mafurinn is hit by a major storm just as they prepare to turn for home. Thirty-two men aboard, and a hold full of redfish. The sea is cold enough to kill a man in minutes, and the trawler quickly ices up in the biting frost and violent tempest. The heavy icing weighs down the already fully laden craft, which is pummelled by one breaker after another - and here, out on the open sea, there is no exit route. Distress signals from other ships in the same circumstance and be heard from the fishing grounds around them. It is a battle of life and death.Translated from the Icelandic by Quentin Bates'If you're not a fan yet, why not?' VAL MCDERMID'A superb storyteller' PETER MAYA BIZARRE DISCOVERYAn unidentified corpse is found…
in a freezer in the garage of an unoccupied house. DS Alexandra Cupidi is handed a case that is made even colder by no-one seeming to know or care whose body it is.A HISTORIC CRIMEIt becomes clear there is a connection between the crime and a skeleton uncovered underneath a housing development of Trevor Grey, a boy who went missing twenty five years earlier.A BURIED LIFEDigging deep into secrets that have long been concealed brings Cupidi to face a deadly conspiracy to hide these crimes. Her investigation is complicated by a secret liaison, a political cover-up and the underground life of Trevor Grey's only friend.With meticulously realised characters and a brooding setting, Grave's End confronts the crisis in housing, environmentalism, historic cases of abuse and the protection given to badgers by the law. The third book in the DS Alexandra Cupidi series confirms William Shaw as one of our finest writers of crime fiction.Storm Birds
By Einar Karason. 2018
"This gripping novel is as good at describing the magnificent seascapes and the unforgiving elements as it is at examining…
the inner lives of the besieged crew, toiling ceaselessly against implacable nature" -Financial Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR"Gripping and Exciting" The Sunday Times BOOKS OF THE YEARIn February 1959, several Icelandic trawlers were caught in a storm off Newfoundland's Grand Banks. What happened there is the inspiration for this novel. Not since The Perfect Storm has there been a book which captures the sheer drama and terror of a crisis at sea. Karason is an exceptional storyteller, an Icelandic Erskine Caldwell or William Faulkner.The side trawler Mafurinn is hit by a major storm just as they prepare to turn for home. Thirty-two men aboard, and a hold full of redfish. The sea is cold enough to kill a man in minutes, and the trawler quickly ices up in the biting frost and violent tempest. The heavy icing weighs down the already fully laden craft, which is pummelled by one breaker after another - and here, out on the open sea, there is no exit route. Distress signals from other ships in the same circumstance and be heard from the fishing grounds around them. It is a battle of life and death.Translated from the Icelandic by Quentin BatesAn Ordinary Wonder
By Buki Papillon. 2020
An Ordinary Wonder is a story of the courage needed to be yourself.Oto leaves for boarding school with one plan:…
excel and escape his cruel home. Falling in love with his roommate was certainly not on the agenda, but fear and shame force him to hide his love and true self.Back home, weighed down by the expectations of their wealthy and powerful family, the love of Oto's twin sister wavers and, as their world begins to crumble around them, Oto must make drastic choices that will alter the family's lives for ever.Richly imagined with art, proverbs and folk tales, this moving and modern novel follows Oto through life at home and at boarding school in Nigeria, through the heartbreak of living as a boy despite their profound belief they are a girl, and through a hunger for freedom that only a new life in the United States can offer. An Ordinary Wonder is a powerful coming-of-age story that explores complex desires as well as challenges of family, identity, gender and culture, and what it means to feel whole.The Hummingbird: ‘Magnificent’ (Guardian)
By Sandro Veronesi. 2019
'MAGNIFICENT' GUARDIAN'A TOWERING ACHIEVEMENT' FINANCIAL TIMES'INVENTIVE, BOLD, UNEXPECTED' THE SUNDAY TIMES'Everything that makes the novel worthwhile and engaging is here:…
warmth, wit, intelligence, love, death, high seriousness, low comedy, philosophy, subtle personal relationships and the complex interior life of human beings'Guardian'Not since William Boyd's Any Human Heart has a novel captured the feast and famine nature of a single life with such invention and tenderness'Financial Times'There is a pleasing sense of having grappled with the real stuff of life: loss, grief, love, desire, pain, uncertainty, confusion, joy, despair - all while having fun'The Sunday Times'The kind of novel summer is made for: instantly immersive, playfully inventive, effortlessly wise'Observer'Masterly: a cabinet of curiosities and delights, packed with small wonders'Ian McEwan'A real masterpiece. A funny, touching, profound book that made me cry like a little girl on the last page'Leïla Slimani'A remarkable accomplishment, a true gift to the world'Michael Cunningham'Ardent, gripping, and inventive to the core'Jhumpa LahiriMarco Carrera is 'the hummingbird,' a man with the almost supernatural ability to stay still as the world around him continues to change.As he navigates the challenges of life - confronting the death of his sister and the absence of his brother; taking care of his parents as they approach the end of their lives; raising his granddaughter when her mother, Marco's own child, can no longer be there for her; coming to terms with his love for the enigmatic Luisa - Marco Carrera comes to represent the quiet heroism that pervades so much of our everyday existence.A thrilling novel about the need to look to the future with hope and live with intensity to the very end.THE NO. 1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLEROver 300,000 copies soldSoon to be a major motion pictureWinner of the Premio StregaWinner of the Prix du Livre EtrangerBook of the Year for the Corriere della SeraAn Ordinary Wonder is a story of the courage needed to be yourself.Oto leaves for boarding school with one plan:…
excel and escape his cruel home. Falling in love with his roommate was certainly not on the agenda, but fear and shame force him to hide his love and true self.Back home, weighed down by the expectations of their wealthy and powerful family, the love of Oto's twin sister wavers and, as their world begins to crumble around them, Oto must make drastic choices that will alter the family's lives for ever.Richly imagined with art, proverbs and folk tales, this moving and modern novel follows Oto through life at home and at boarding school in Nigeria, through the heartbreak of living as a boy despite their profound belief they are a girl, and through a hunger for freedom that only a new life in the United States can offer. An Ordinary Wonder is a powerful coming-of-age story that explores complex desires as well as challenges of family, identity, gender and culture, and what it means to feel whole.Crimes of the Father
By Thomas Keneally. 2017
Thomas Keneally pulls no punches in this powerful novel about the Catholic Church's attempts to cover up cases of child…
abuse, and a priest who decides help its innocent victims' fight to be heard.Expelled from the archdiocese of Sydney as a young priest for his outspoken views on the Vietnam War, Father Frank Docherty returns to Australia in 1996 to speak at a conference on paedophilia within the Catholic Church. He had hoped to spend time with his mother and old friends. Instead, he finds himself caught up in the cases of two people who claim to have been sexually abused by an eminent Sydney cleric - one the son of Docherty's former parishioner, the other a former nun. And the cleric in question is brother to the woman Docherty fell in love with many years before. If the accusations are true, the consequences for many will be devastating, but Docherty has to follow his conscience. In this riveting, profoundly thoughtful novel, Thomas Keneally draws on his own experience as an ex-seminarian to bring alive matters of faith, celibacy, perversion and marriage. Portraying the Catholic Church at a pivotal moment, he shows that its prevarications and cover-ups wreaked terrible damage not only on innocents but on itself, with toxic repercussions to this day.(P)2017 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'OMG!!! This has to be my best book of the year!... Made me laugh and it made me cry!...…
So heartbreaking but inspiring at the same time. Loved it!' Goodreads ReviewerA powerful novel about an intersex Nigerian teenager and the courage to be yourself.Narrated by Adjoa Andoh whose many film and TV roles include Doctor Who, Adulthood and most recently Lady Danbury in the Netflix drama Bridgerton. Adjoa directed and starred in Richard II, the first ever company of women of colour in a Shakespeare play on a major UK stage.Raised as a boy in a grand but unhappy family in Nigeria, Otolorin Akinro escapes to boarding school knowing two things: she is truly a girl, and to stay safe, she must hide that truth.Away from the cruelty of her childhood home, Oto blooms even as she strives to be the best boy she can, finding true friendship and working hard to earn a scholarship to an American university, hoping someone out there might help her understand the secrets her body holds.But she cannot stay away forever. Back home for the holidays, though Oto and her beloved twin sister are overjoyed to see each other, their mother's violence erupts once more and when a terrible incident rips their lives apart, Oto is left alone.As her world goes up in flames, can Otolorin rebuild a life from the ashes of her true self?You won't be able to stop listening to this heartbreaking and uplifting coming-of-age story about family, identity, gender and culture and discovering your whole, true self. If you loved The Vanishing Half, The Girl with the Louding Voice or The Death of Vivek Oji, you'll adore this moving book.What listeners are saying about An Ordinary Wonder:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'WOW!!!! I absolutely LOVED this book... A powerful, engrossing, sad, but also joyous book. I could not stop listening and reading once I started it.' Goodreads Reviewer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'This story was so sad!!!... Just broke my heart.' Goodreads Reviewer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'One of the best, most beautiful and most incredible books I've ever read in my entire life.' Goodreads Reviewer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I thought I was going to make it all the way through to end of this book without crying. Turns out, I was very wrong... After the tears, you're cheering with the characters all the way to the end.' Goodreads Reviewer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Wow! This book is so totally awesome!... An amazing story.' Goodreads Reviewer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Moved me to tears but also filled me with hope. An emotional, heartbreaking read, with a plot that kept me gripped and stunning writing. I'm still thinking about this book months after reading it.' Goodreads Reviewer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Brilliant... The tension builds up and honestly the author squeezed every emotion out of me!' Reader review'If you're not a fan yet, why not?' VAL MCDERMID'A superb storyteller' PETER MAYA BIZARRE DISCOVERYAn unidentified cadaver is found…
in a freezer in an unoccupied luxury house. No-one seems to know or care who it is or who placed it there. When DS Alexandra Cupidi is handed the case, she can have no idea it will lead her to a series of murderous cover-ups and buried secrets. Namely the discovery of the skeleton of public-school boy, Trevor Wood, beneath a housing development.A HISTORIC CRIMEHis disappearance twenty five years earlier had almost passed unnoticed. But as evidence surfaces that his fate was linked to long suppressed rumours of sexual abuse, Cupidi, her teenage daughter Zoe and her friend Bill South find themselves up against powerful forces who will try to silence them. A BURIED LIFEDigging deep into the secrets that are held underground leads to Cupidi's realisation that crime and power are seldom far apart. There are dangerous connections between the two cases, which are complicated by Constable Jill Ferriter's dating habits, a secret liaison and the underground life of Trevor Grey's only friend.The most riveting and atmospheric DS Alexandra Cupidi novel so far, Grave's End confronts the crisis in housing, environmental politics, the protection given to badgers by the law. With meticulously mastered characters and a brooding setting, this third book in the series confirms William Shaw as one of the finest crime writers. (P)2020 Quercus Editions LimitedDamascus Gate
By Robert Stone. 1998
With soaring vision and profound intelligence, Robert Stone has written a harrowing, breathtaking novel about our desperate search, at any…
price, for the consolation of redemption - and about the people who are all too willing to provide it. A violent confrontation in the Gaza Strip, a mind-altering pilgrimage, a race through riot-filled Jerusalem streets, a cat-and-mouse game in an underground maze, a desperate attempt to prevent a bomb from detonating beneath the Temple Mount -- Damascus Gate is an exhilarating journey through the moral and religious ambiguities that haunt the holiest of cities and its seekers, cynics, hustlers, and madmen. Set in Jerusalem, where violence, ecstasy, heresy, and salvation are all to be found, Damascus Gate is simultaneously the story of a man's search for truth -- or some version of it -- and the story of a city where sanity is casually traded for faith.Sleeping on Jupiter: A Novel
By Anuradha Roy. 2016
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2015A stark and unflinching novel by a spellbinding storyteller, about religion, love and violence…
in the modern world.A train stops at a railway station. A young woman jumps off. She has wild hair, sloppy clothes, a distracted air. She looks Indian, yet she is somehow not. The sudden violence of what happens next leaves the other passengers gasping.The train terminates at Jarmuli, a temple town by the sea. Here, among pilgrims, priests and ashrams, three old women disembark only to encounter the girl once again. What is someone like her doing in this remote corner, which attracts only worshippers?Over the next five days, the old women live out their long-planned dream of a holiday together; their temple guide finds ecstasy in forbidden love; and the girl is joined by a photographer battling his own demons.The full force of the evil and violence beneath the serene surface of the town becomes evident when their lives overlap and collide. Unexpected connections are revealed between devotion and violence, friendship and fear, as Jarmuli is revealed as a place with a long, dark past that transforms all who encounter it.The Mountain in the Sea
By Ray Nayler. 2022
'I loved this novel's brain and heart'DAVID MITCHELL, AUTHOR OF CLOUD ATLAS'A first-rate speculative thriller, by turns fascinating, brutal, powerful,…
and redemptive'JEFF VANDERMEER, AUTHOR OF ANNIHILATIONThere are creatures in the water of Con Dao. To the locals, they're monsters. To the corporate owners of the island, an opportunity. To the team of three sent to study them, a revelation. Their minds are unlike ours. Their bodies are malleable, transformable, shifting. They can communicate. And they want us to leave.When pioneering marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen is offered the chance to travel to the remote Con Dao Archipelago to investigate a highly intelligent, dangerous octopus species, she doesn't pause long enough to look at the fine print. DIANIMA- a transnational tech corporation best known for its groundbreaking work in artificial intelligence - has purchased the islands, evacuated their population and sealed the archipelago off from the world so that Nguyen can focus on her research.But the stakes are high: the octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence and there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of their advancements. And no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it.Whitethorn Woods
By Maeve Binchy. 2006
The town of Rossmore is a special place, full of character and charm. Nestled beside the Whitethorn Woods, the town…
has grown since the days when it was small and friendly and everyone knew everyone else. But it still has the woods, with the well dedicated to St Ann, where generations have come to pray or make wishes or just to look back at the pretty little town. Which is why there is going to be such a fuss about the plans for the new road, cutting through Whitethorn Woods.The people of Rossmore are divided. No one is more concerned than the curate, Father Brian Flynn, who has no idea which faction to support. Surely Neddy Nolan's family should take the compensation being offered for their land? But wasn't Neddy's mother given a cure at the well many years ago? And what about the childless London woman who came to Whitethorn Woods begging the saint for help, with unexpected consequences?Read by Caroline Lennon and Steven Armstrong(p) 2007 Audible LtdBetty: The International Bestseller
By Tiffany McDaniel.
'NOT A STORY YOU WILL SOON FORGET' Karen Joy Fowler, author of Man Booker Prize finalist We Are All Completely…
Beside Ourselves'A girl comes of age against the knife.' So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty and violence - both from outside the family and also, devastatingly, from within. When her family's darkest secrets are brought to light, Betty has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters in her rural town of Breathed, Ohio.Despite the hardship she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters and her father's brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all she bears witness to, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write.A heartbreaking yet magical story, Betty is a punch-in-the-gut of a novel - full of the crushing cruelty of human nature and the redemptive power of words.