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A Bucket of Stars
By Suri Rosen. 2023
A story of two kids trying to save the world they know and heal the families they have.It’s the summer…
of 2003 and thirteen-year-old astronomer Noah Cooper has just moved to Queensport, a small town with a vast amateur sky full of stars. There he meets Tara Dhillon, a lonely girl and aspiring filmmaker. When the two team up to produce an astronomy movie and enter a film contest, they discover a secret plan to turn their rural hamlet into a huge subdivision.Noah and Tara must use their unique skills to identify the culprits who plan on paving over the historic county — and try to save the infinite beauty of the stars. As if that’s not enough to have at stake, Noah needs to win the prize money to buy a new telescope for his unemployed father — an ex-astronomer who’s almost given up on the stars, as well as life on earth.Touching on themes of activism, environmental anxiety and mental health, A Bucket of Stars will have readers cheering for Noah, a boy whose head is in the stars, and Tara, a girl who lives in a world of digital images — and their special bond that just might mend the world around them.Odd Girl Out
By Ann Bannon. 1957
Twilight Girl
By Della Martin. 2006
The swaggering butches and dolled-up femmes of this 1961 lesbian pulp novel experience the guilt, thrills, and wonder of forbidden…
love."She knew why they danced with such gay desperation."A budding butch in the Brylcreem era, Lorraine "Lon" Harris fantasizes about a South Pacific island full of women, where everyone will be free and accepting, and she'll never have to wear an eyelet blouse again. Spurned by her high school English teacher, Lon turns to a new friend, the brash, purple-haired Violet, who draws Lon into the lesbian underworld of suburban Los Angeles, to the sordid 28 Percent Club, a private bar where those with "contaminated passions" cling to each other. Here, among the swaggering butches and dolled-up femmes, Lon will discover herself. And here she will first lay eyes on brilliant, lovely Mavis, a black jazz pianist and the girlfriend of wealthy Sassy Gregg, whose heavy bracelets may as well be brass knuckles where Lon is concerned.Spring Fire
By Vin Packer. 1952
Her silky black hair. Her low-cut gown. Her sparkling sorority pin. It's autumn rush in the Tri Epsilon house, and…
the new pledge, Susan Mitchell-"Mitch" to her friends-trembles as the fastest girl on campus, the lovely Leda Taylor, crosses the room toward her for a dance. Will Leda corrupt Mitch? Or will the strong and silent Mitch draw the queen of Tri Ep into the forbidden world of Lesbian Love?Spring Fire was the first lesbian paperback novel and sold an amazing 1.5 million copies when it first appeared in 1952. It launched an entire genre of lesbian novels, as well as the writing career of Vin Packer, one of the pseudonyms of prolific author Marijane Meaker, whose acclaimed memoir, Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950s, told the story of her own forbidden love. Now available after forty years out of print, Spring Fire is both a vital part of lesbian history and a steamy page-turner.The Blacker the Ink
By John Jennings, Craig Fischer, Frances Gateward, Rebecca Wanzo, William Lafi Youmans, Kinohi Nishikawa, Blair Davis, Nancy Goldstein, Daniel F. Yezbick, Sally Mcwilliams, James J. Zeigler, Qiana Whitted, Reynaldo Anderson, Hershini Bhana Young, Robin Means Coleman, Patrick F. Walter, Consuela Francis, Andre Carrington. 2015
When many think of comic books the first thing that comes to mind are caped crusaders and spandex-wearing super-heroes. Perhaps,…
inevitably, these images are of white men (and more rarely, women). It was not until the 1970s that African American superheroes such as Luke Cage, Blade, and others emerged. But as this exciting new collection reveals, these superhero comics are only one small component in a wealth of representations of black characters within comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels over the past century. The Blacker the Ink is the first book to explore not only the diverse range of black characters in comics, but also the multitude of ways that black artists, writers, and publishers have made a mark on the industry. Organized thematically into "panels" in tribute to sequential art published in the funny pages of newspapers, the fifteen original essays take us on a journey that reaches from the African American newspaper comics of the 1930s to the Francophone graphic novels of the 2000s. Even as it demonstrates the wide spectrum of images of African Americans in comics and sequential art, the collection also identifies common character types and themes running through everything from the strip The Boondocks to the graphic novel Nat Turner. Though it does not shy away from examining the legacy of racial stereotypes in comics and racial biases in the industry, The Blacker the Ink also offers inspiring stories of trailblazing African American artists and writers. Whether you are a diehard comic book fan or a casual reader of the funny pages, these essays will give you a new appreciation for how black characters and creators have brought a vibrant splash of color to the world of comics.Recapture
By Erica Olsen. 2012
The Utah Canyons WildMall gives tourists exactly what they want. An archivist preserves a rare map of a vanished Lake…
Tahoe. The Grand Canyon can only be visited in replica form. These stories-lyrical, deadpan, surreal-blur the line between the natural world and the world we make.Praise for Recapture:A Library Journal Best Short Story Collection of the Year"Unsentimental stories that tell us what the American West looks like now and what we've lost; the Grand Canyon, for instance, can be seen only in replica after environmental catastrophe."-Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal"Recapture is a living, breathing museum of natural wonders. With writing as spare as the landscape she evokes, Olsen wades through the detritus of the human experience and finds clarity there, and some magic, too."-ZYZZYVA"True to its name, Recapture grasps after lost loves, fading histories, and shifting landscapes to bring us an expertly curated series of human exhibits in an expansive, outdoor museum."-Lindsey Griffin, the museum of americana literary review"Erica Olsen gives us the dream life of the Southwest in this striking collection, a landscape told in language as spare and pungent and exacting as the desert itself. A swift and lovely debut from a writer of real gifts."-Kevin Canty, author of Where the Money Went"These sly, heartbreaking stories capture the modern West, where the past is ever-present and the future is already here."-Alison Baker, author of How I Came West, and Why I Stayed"Beneath their polished surfaces, Erica Olsen's stories are subversive, sometimes darkly funny, and always disquieting. When you set off on a hike in her universe, be prepared for surprises. You may find yourself exploring Utah-or Norway-or a surreal faux wilderness where rainbows are regularly scheduled and gnats are outlawed. Also, prepare to be exhilarated. This accomplished writer really knows her way through the tricky zone between truth and falsehood where art is made."-Susan Lowell Humphreys, author of Ganado Red"A sharp, wise new voice from the American West, Erica Olsen is the real thing. As wild as David Foster Wallace or George Saunders and as tender as James Salter or Alice Munro, Olsen's stories are hilarious, painful, and achingly lovely."-Amanda Eyre Ward, author of Close Your Eyes"Like all good narratives, Erica Olsen's "Grand Canyon II" suggests great consequence. The past is another country. The task of memory is impossible. No one exists and nothing ever happened. But somewhere in your brain, a beautiful lie is being spun..."-Sarah Manguso, author of The Guardians"Recapture is like a lost map of the backcountry, detailing the forgotten places where secrets shove up through the dust, pieces of lives demanding to be made whole. The territory is endlessly illuminating and constantly surprising, revealing a master storyteller at work."-Kim Todd, author of Tinkering with Eden: A Natural History of Exotic Species in AmericaGrind
By Mark Maynard. 2012
Convicts round up wild mustangs, a schizophrenic homeless man wins the jackpot and disappears, a truck driver with a child's…
mind spends his last hours in the embrace of a prostitute's photos-disparate and vivid, Mark Maynard's characters intersect in the new wild west of Reno, Nevada."Throughout the volume's eight tenuously linked tales, lives and fortune are lost, and the city of Reno emerges as a locus of shattered souls. Maynard's debut collection bursts with idiosyncratic characters...packs a strong emotional punch...is strangely entertaining."-Publishers Weekly"In Grind, Maynard reveals a world the Nevada tourism board would rather you didn't see...A debut collection of stories that perfectly captures the seediness, desperation and sense of loss permeating the hot desert world of Reno."-Shelf Awareness"Mark Maynard's Reno is so sleazily appealing, so filled with convict cowboys, wild horses, racing pilots, truckers, snow bums, eco-terrorists, tattoo conventions, pawnshops and jackpots that you emerge from reading Grind dazed by this author's empathy for neglected quarters of humanity. You feel gritty all over-and more alive."-Carolyn Cooke, author of Daughters of the Revolution"The characters in these stories are as beautiful and broken as the desert itself. Mark Maynard explores the stony truths of lost lives with an unflinching eye for detail, an insider's sense of the place and its people, and an honest compassion. The heartbreaks here are real, as are the moments of uncommon grace and hard-won redemption."-Kim Barnes, author of In the Kingdom of Men"Mark Maynard's Grind is chock full of men and women who are desperate with want and full of spirit. Pawnbrokers. Truckers. Casino shills. Prison inmates. They're all here, and they're all gloriously alive. This is prime American fiction-tough, generous, and open-eyed."-Alyson Hagy, author of Boleto"Grind is exactly what I like in a locally based book. Plenty of those characters who make a visit to the environs of Reno both an exciting potential and an illicit affair...This is a Northern Nevada book."-D. Brian Burghart, Reno News & ReviewThe Whole
By John Reed. 2005
From John Reed, author of the controversial Orwell parody,Snowball's Chance,comes a subversive satire of modern culture, the complete lack thereof,…
and a lost generation that no one even tried to look for. In the middle of America's heartland, a young boy digs a small hole in the ground. . . which grows into a big hole in the ground. . . which then proceeds to drag the boy, his parents, his dog, and most of their house into a deep void. Then, as abruptly as the hole started growing, it stops. So begins the first in a series of events that takes the beautiful-if-not-brainy Thing on a quest to uncover the truth behind the mysterious Hole. Inspired by visions, signs, and an unlimited supply of pink cocktails served by an ever-lurking "Black Rabbit," Thing and her dogged production crew travel around America, encountering Satanists, an Extraterrestrial/Christian cult group, and a surprisingly helpful phone psychic. Their search for answers could very well decide the fate of the world as they know it. But the more Thing learns about the Hole, her shocking connection to it, and the mind-boggling destiny that awaits her, the more she realizes that human civilization isn't all it's cracked up to be -- and that it's just about time to start over.The Contest
By James Hurley. 2013
"The only constant passion in my life was my love of fly fishing and all that went with it. I…
coveted the escape I could find sitting at my vise for hours, tying deceitful little flies. I loved to be in the world where trout lived--the rivers and mountains and forests and meadows, away from people and the demands and requirements that created stress in my life."Meet Benedict Salem, whose friends call him BS, a frustrated writer and teacher looking to find himself. Middle-aged and blocked creatively, his dreams are filled with those magical moments when the weather, the lay of the cast, the fly, and the water converge with the fish in one fluid arc of perfection. The desire to perpetuate these moments takes BS to a small town in Maine, home to the crossing house inn, behind which lies a tract of virtual wilderness, a clean-running river, and a bounty of large, smart, and mostly fearless trout.BS soon befriends the owner of the inn, Bill Cahill, and together they and a group of fellow anglers found the Samuel Tippett Fly Fishers club. They soon devise a fishing contest between them, but what starts out as a friendly game to determine the best trout fly to represent their new club, quickly descends into a bitter rivalry that threatens to overtake reason. Feelings and friendships are forgotten as a fight over rules and the hunger to win takes hold of the men.In a deftly interwoven tale that explores the camaraderie and sportsmanship among anglers, The Contest challenges the wisdom of chasing perfection, and instead, encourages the reader to revel in life's most important moments, however brief or passing.Women in the Shadows
By Ann Bannon. 2002
Designated the "Queen of Lesbian Pulp" for her landmark novels beginning in 1957, Ann Bannon's work defined lesbian fiction for…
the pre-Stonewall generation. Following the release of Cleis Press's new editions of Beebo Brinker and Odd Girl Out, Women in the Shadows picks up with Beebo's relationship with Laura waning, as both women become caught in the cultural tumult (gay bar raids, heavy drinking, gay rights advocacy) that anticipates by ten years the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969. New introduction explains the book's evolution, including the role Bannon's divorce played in shaping the lesbian protagonist's outrage.Invisible Beasts
By Sharona Muir. 2014
"An amazing feat of imagination." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Invisible Beasts is a strange and beautiful meditation on love and seeing,…
a hybrid of fantasy and field guide, novel and essay, treatise and fable. With one hand it offers a sad commentary on environmental degradation, while with the other it presents a bright, whimsical, and funny exploration of what it means to be human. It's wonderfully written, crazily imagined, and absolutely original." -ANTHONY DOERR, author of All the Light We Cannot See and The Shell CollectorSophie is an amateur naturalist with a rare genetic gift: the ability to see a marvelous kingdom of invisible, sentient creatures that share a vital relationship with humankind. To record her observations, Sophie creates a personal bestiary and, as she relates the strange abilities of these endangered beings, her tales become extraordinary meditations on love, sex, evolution, extinction, truth, and self-knowledge.In the tradition of E.O. Wilson's Anthill, Invisible Beasts is inspiring, philosophical, and richly detailed fiction grounded by scientific fact and a profound insight into nature. The fantastic creations within its pages-an ancient animal that uses natural cold fusion for energy, a species of vampire bat that can hear when their human host is lying, a continent-sized sponge living under the ice of Antarctica-illuminate the role that all living creatures play in the environment and remind us of what we stand to lose if we fail to recognize our entwined destinies.Sharona Muir is the author of The Book of Telling: Tracing the Secrets of My Father's Lives. The recipient of a Hodder Fellowship and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, her writing has appeared in Granta, Orion magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. She is a Professor of Creative Writing and English at Bowling Green State University. Invisible Beasts is her first novel.29
By Mary Sojourner. 2014
"Ever-ascending Sojourner cooks up wrenching sorrow and hilarious banter, environmental and moral conundrums, magnetizing characters, and a place of transcendent…
beauty in this intoxicating, provocative, and gloriously told desert tale of wildness and community, unexpected bonds and deep legacies, trauma and healing."-Donna Seaman, BOOKLIST (starred review) "This standout ecological novel from Arizona author Sojourner (Going Through Ghosts) features picturesque prose, a vivid western setting, and sharply drawn characters."-PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)"In Nell Walker, Mary Sojourner has created a character who discovers-in her own desperate way-the simple beauty in the interconnectedness of the natural world and the complexities we heap upon it. Written with passion and humor, 29 takes the reader on a journey of hope, humanity, and love."-Jana Richman, author of Riding in the Shadows of Saints, The Last Cowgirl, and The Ordinary Truth"29 is at the intersection of a local road to Nowhere and an interstate to Everywhere. Certainly Mary's prose and storytelling is crystalline and lovely, a kind of geode broth, filled with light and piquancy."-David Kranes, author of The Legend's Daughter and The National Tree"Sojourner's desert eyes not only see but transform what others dismiss and ignore. She brings readers deep into the dust and sparkle of the Mojave, forcing the reader to hear the people of the desert-their stories, their sorrows, and their fierce and fragile loves. 29 holds the ragged weeping desert open, then kisses closed her wounds. A love letter to what we frequently deem unloveable, 29 is a wide-armed triumph of hope."-Laraine Herring, author of Ghost Swamp Blues and Writing Begins with the Breath"This is a story that will stay with the readers and, perhaps, bring them home to their own place, and the importance of fighting for what you love."-Susan Lang, author of the Mojave novels trilogy"The language is sharp as a butcher's blade, the dialogue rings true and hard, and the story cuts deeply into its reader."-H. Lee Barnes, author of Cold Deck, The Lucky, and Car Tag"Sojourner's new novel, much like the desert landscapes in which it is set, will never speak to those who see the Mojave as an annoying blur between L.A. and Vegas, but those adventurous enough (or lost enough) to wander off I-15 will find a world bursting with fragile beauty, tenacious life, and rock hard truth."-Giles Carwyn, author of Queen of OblivionThe Ordinary Truth
By Jana Richman. 2012
When Nell Jorgensen buried her husband, she buried a piece of herself-and more than one secret. Now, thirty-six years later,…
the rift between Nell and her daughter Kate threatens to implode as Kate, a water manager for the Nevada Water Authority, plans to pipe water from a huge aquifer that lies beneath the family ranch to thirsty Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Nell's granddaughter Cassie intends to unearth those old secrets and repair the resentments that grew in their place. Throughout the novel, sparse and beautiful landscapes surround an emotional wilderness of love, loss, and family.Jana Richman is the award-winning author of The Last Cowgirl (HarperCollins, 2009), a novel which won the 2009 Willa Award for Contemporary Fiction. A sixth-generation Utahn, Jana was born and raised in Utah's west desert, the daughter of a small-time rancher and a hand-wringing Mormon mother. With the exception of a few misguided years spent in New York City trying to make a fortune on Wall Street, she has lived her entire life west of the hundredth meridian. She writes about issues that threaten to destroy the essence of the west-and about passion, beauty, and love. Jana lives in Escalante, Utah.Anime Explosion!
By Patrick Drazen. 2002
An updated look at Japanese animation, and the manga that inspired them. New chapters on "Fullmetal Alchemist," manga/anime by CLAMP,…
and Satoshi Kon. It brings fans up to date on Studio Ghibli movies after the Academy Award-winning "Spirited Away," new titles like "Negima" and "Ouran High School Host Club," and breakthrough same-sex stories "Gravitation" and "Mother Mary is Watching."Through the Arc of the Rain Forest
By Karen Tei Yamashita. 1990
Through the Arc of the Rain Forest is a burlesque of comic-strip adventures and apocalyptic portents that stretches familiar truths…
to their logical extreme in a future world that is just recognizable enough to be frightening. In the Author's Note," Karen Tei Yamashita writes that her book is like a Brazilian soap opera called a novela: "the novela's story is completely changeable according to the whims of the public psyche and approval, although most likely, the unhappy find happiness; the bad are punished; true love reigns; a popular actor is saved from death ... an idyll striking innocence, boundless nostalgia and terrible ruthlessness." The stage is a vast, mysterious field of impenetrable plastic in the Brazilian rain forest set against a backdrop of rampant environmental destruction, commercialization, poverty, and religious rapture. Through the Arc of the Rainforest is narrated by a small satellite hovering permanently around the head of an innocent character named Kazumasa. Through no fault of his own, Kazumasa seems to draw strange and significant people into his orbit and to find himself at the center of cataclysmic events that involve carrier pigeons, religious pilgrims, industrial espionage, magic feathers, big money, miracles, epidemics, true love, and the virtual end of the world. This book is simultaneously entertaining and depressing, with all the rollicking pessimism you'd expect of a good soap opera or a good political satire."- Kirsten Backstrom, 500 Great Books by WomenBeebo Brinker
By Ann Bannon. 1962
Ann Bannon was designated the "Queen of Lesbian Pulp" for authoring several landmark novels in the '50s. Unlike many writers…
of the period, however, Bannon broke through the shame and isolation typically portrayed in lesbian pulps, offering instead characters who embraced their sexuality. With Beebo Brinker, Bannon introduces a butch 17-year-old farm girl newly arrived in Beat-era Greenwich Village.A Day at the Farm
By Pierre Brignaud, Joceline Sanschagrin. 2012
In this tale, Caillou, Mommy, and Daddy visit Uncle Felix's farm. Caillou learns what it takes to keep the farm…
going as he feeds the sheep, gathers the hens' eggs, and gives hay to the cows. Full color.I Will Find You: The Love Story of the Year that will steal your heart away (Seal Island #2)
By Daniela Sacerdoti. 2018
A woman on the run. An island of secrets. A love to defy all odds...From the bestselling author of WATCH…
OVER ME, Daniela Sacerdoti's new novel is a romantic, heartrending, epic story that will sweep you away to the beautiful, mysterious island of Seal. If you love the novels of Rosanna Ley, Tracy Rees and Lulu Taylor, you will adore Daniela Sacerdoti.** Over 1 million copies sold of Daniela Sacerdoti's novels **Two different women, divided by time, bound by fate...After her beloved mother dies, Cora is heartbroken. When she discovers her mother has left her a cottage - a crumbling shelter on a remote and beautiful Scottish island - Cora hopes that travelling there will help her feel closer to the person she has lost. The moment she arrives on the wild, windswept island of Seal, Cora instantly falls under its spell. She is drawn to Innes, recently returned to the island to confront his past.As Cora begins to unravel her mother's connection to Seal, she learns the island has a dark, turbulent history. She is not the first lonely traveller to have sought refuge at Gealach Cottage. And there may be far more to her attraction to Innes than she could have ever imagined...Readers love the breathtaking novels of Daniela Sacerdoti:'A page-turning mystery... A love story that will satisfy even the most hopeless romantics' Daily Express on Keep Me Safe'Beautifully written, and the descriptions of Seal were so realistic I could almost hear the sea and the wind. A great book - Lesley Pearse on Keep Me Safe 'Emotional. Mysterious. I couldn't put it down' Daily Mail on Keep Me Safe'I fell in love with this book' Prima magazine on Keep Me Safe'Beautifully written and atmospheric' The Sun on Keep Me Safe'One of my favourite reads of the year so far. If there's such a thing as book heaven, this wonderfully original, poignant read deserves a place there' Shari Low, Daily Record on Watch Over Me'A beautiful story of love, loss, discovering one's true abilities and, above all, never forgetting who you really are' Debbie Flint on Take Me Home'A story of love, loss, hope and pastures new. I give this book 5 out of 5' A Lover of Books on Set Me Free'Dani's writing pulled me in... It reminded me of the safety of those arms around you as a young child when something scares you' Jera's Jamboree on Don't Be AfraidJourney to a Woman
By Ann Bannon. 1960
Designated the "Queen of Lesbian Pulp" for her series of landmark novels beginning in 1957, Ann Bannon's work defined lesbian…
fiction for the pre-Stonewall generation. Following the release of Cleis Press's new editions of Beebo Brinker and Odd Girl Out, Journey to a Woman finds Laura in love among the lesbian bohemia of Greenwich Village.Mass-Market Fiction and the Crisis of American Liberalism, 1972–2017
By Michael J. Blouin. 2018
Mass-Market Fiction and the Crisis of American Liberalism, 1972–2017 tracks the transformation of liberal thought in the contemporary United States…
through the unique lens of the popular paperback. The book focuses on cultural shifts as they appear in works written by some of the most widely-read authors of the last fifty years: the idea of love within a New Economy (Danielle Steel), the role of government in scientific inquiry (Michael Crichton), entangled political alliances and legacies in the aftermath of the 1960s (Tom Clancy), the restructured corporation (John Grisham), and the blurred line between state and personal empowerment (Dean Koontz). To address the current crisis, this book examines how the changed character of American liberalism has been rendered legible for a mass audience.