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In Perfect Light: A Novel
By Benjamin Alire Sáenz. 2005
“Ben Saenz’s vivid imagination captures all that is beautiful, agonizing and redemptive in the crossings we make through borders of…
geography and culture. But it is in the interior journeys of the psyche and the soul that we must find salvation; Saenz’s brilliant prose penetrates to that core and he finds and exposes that truth. A reader can ask for no more than this: to be spellbound by a story, and to come to the last page with a sense of having been being changed and allowed to carry something of it away.” —Abraham Verghese, author of My Own CountryFrom award-winning poet Benjamin Alire Sáenz comes a haunting novel depicting the cruelties of cultural displacement and the resilience of those who are left in its aftermath.In Perfect Light is the story of two strong-willed people who are forever altered by a single tragedy. After Andés Segovia's parents are killed in a car accident when he is still a young boy, his older brother decides to steal the family away to Juárez, Mexico. That decision, made with the best intentions, sets into motion the unraveling of an American family.Years later, his family destroyed, Andés is left to make sense of the chaos—but he is ill-equipped to make sense of his life. He begins a dark journey toward self-destruction, his talent and brilliance brought down by the weight of a burden too frightening and maddening to bear alone. The manifestation of this frustration is a singular rage that finds an outlet in a dark and seedy El Paso bar—leading him improbably to Grace Delgado.Recently confronted with her own sense of isolation and mortality, Grace is an unlikely angel, a therapist who agrees to treat Andés after he is arrested in the United States. The two are suspicious of each other, yet they slowly arrive at a tentative working relationship that allows each of them to examine his and her own fragile and damaged past. With the urgent, unflinching vision of a true storyteller and the precise, arresting language of a poet, Sáenz's In Perfect Light bears witness to the cruelty of circumstance and, more than offering escape, the novel offers the possibility of salvation.Memory of Fire: Book One Of The World Gates (World Gates Series #1)
By Holly Lisle. 2002
Lauren Dane discovers a doorway to another reality in Cat Creek, North Carolina -- and she crosses over, driven by…
a strange compulsion she can neither resist nor comprehend. Molly McColl is brought there against her will -- kidnapped from her trailer and carried into a realm that traps her, terrifies her...yet offers her a strange and wondrous escape.In an extraordinary universe of magic and monsters, two strangers sharing only pain and loss must now pursue the destiny that has united them. Because worlds are suddenly threatened by an evil beyond imagining -- the world they have entered...and the one the have left behind.The Wreck of Heaven (World Gates Series #2)
By Holly Lisle. 2003
There are doors into other worlds -- and those who cross over are changed forever ...Two women have discovered the…
way into a new reality -- one so close to Earth that events there have shattering repercussions here. On Oria -- a wondrous paradise and nightmare both -- Molly McColl has powers she never imagined ... and a destiny that threatens her life, her love, and her soul. While Lauren Dane must use an extraordinary, newfound magic to protect her young son -- and to join with her sister on a quest that will shake the foundations of Heaven itself. For a serpentine evil now threatens the worldchain -- a soulless, immortal enemy who feeds on the death of worlds, and who is now turning its hungry, malevolent gaze on Oria ... and Earth.The Member of the Wedding: A Drama (Sparknotes Literature Guide Ser.)
By Carson McCullers. 2004
The novel that became an award-winning play and a major motion picture and that has charmed generations of readers, Carson…
McCullers’s classic The Member of the Wedding is now available in small- format trade paperback for the first time. Here is the story of the inimitable twelve-year-old Frankie, who is utterly, hopelessly bored with life until she hears about her older brother’s wedding. Bolstered by lively conversations with her house servant, Berenice, and her six-year-old male cousin — not to mention her own unbridled imagination — Frankie takes on an overly active role in the wedding, hoping even to go, uninvited, on the honeymoon, so deep is her desire to be the member of something larger, more accepting than herself. “A marvelous study of the agony of adolescence” (Detroit Free Press), The Member of the Wedding showcases Carson McCullers at her most sensitive, astute, and lasting best.Eddie's Bastard: A Novel
By William Kowalski. 1999
"Eddie's Bastard" is William Amos Mann IV, known as Billy -- the son of a heroic pilot killed in Vietnam…
and an unknown woman. The last in a line of proud, individualistic Irish-American men, Billy is discovered in a basket at the door of the dilapidated mansion where his bitter, hard-drinking grandfather, Thomas Mann, has exiled himself. Astonished and moved by the arrival of his unexpected progeny, Thomas sets out to raise the boy himself -- on a diet of love, fried baloney, and the fascinating lore of their shared heritage. Listening to his sets out to capture the stories on paper. He is a Mann, Grandpa reminds him daily, and thus destined for greatness. Through the tales of his ancestors, his own experiences, and the unforgettable characters who enhance and enliven his adolescence, Billy learns of bravery and cowardice, of life and death, of the heart's capacity for love and for unremitting hatred, eventually grasping the meaning of family and history and their power to shape destiny. Steeped in imagery and threaded with lyricism, Eddie's Bastard is a novel of discovery, of a young man's emergence into the world, and the endless possibilities it offers.The News from Paraguay: A Novel
By Lily Tuck. 2004
“Brimming with rich descriptions of a beautiful country….The News From Paraguay evolves from a quirky, elegant tale of an unconventional…
love affair into a sweeping epic.” — Fort Worth Star-TelegramLily Tuck’s impressive novel offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of 19th century Paraguay, a largely untouched wilderness where European and American figures mix with the Spanish aristocracy of the capital and the indigenous peoples from the surrounding areas. The year is l854. In Paris, Francisco Solano—the future dictator of Paraguay—begins his courtship of the young, beautiful Irish courtesan Ella Lynch with a poncho, a Paraguayan band, and a horse named Mathilde. Ella follows Franco to Asunción and reigns there as his mistress. Isolated and estranged in this new world, she embraces her lover's ill-fated imperial dream—one fueled by a heedless arrogance that will devastate all of Paraguay.With the urgency of the narrative, rich and intimate detail, and a wealth of skillfully layered characters, The News from Paraguay recalls the epic novels of Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa.Grandmother's Tale and Selected Stories
By R. K. Narayan. 1994
"It is not too much to compare Mr. Narayan to Chekhov." -The New York TimesThere is no better introduction to…
R.K. Narayan than this remarkable collection of stories celebrating work that spans five decades. Characters include a storyteller whose magical source of tales dries up, a love-stricken husband who is told by astrologers he must sleep with a prostitute to save his dying wife, a pampered child who discovers that his beloved uncle may be an impostor or even a murderer. Standing supreme amid this rich assortment of stories is the title novella. Told by the narrator's grandmother, the tale recounts the adventures of her mother, married at seven and then abandoned, who crosses the subcontinent to extract her husband from the hands of his new wife. Her courage is immense and her will implacable -- but once her mission is completed, her independence vanishes. Gentle irony, wryly drawn characters, and themes at once Indian and universal mark these humane stories, which firmly establish Narayan as one of the world's preeminant storytellers.Maggie-Now: A Novel
By Betty Smith. 1966
Betty Smith, the beloved author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, weaves a riveting modern myth out of the experiences of…
her own life in this rediscovered classic.In Brooklyn's unforgiving urban jungle, Maggie Moore is torn between answering her own needs and catering to the desirous men who dominate her life. Confronted by her quarrelsome Irish immigrant father, the feckless lover who may become her husband, and others, Maggie must learn to navigate a cycle of loss, separation, and hope as she forges her own path toward happiness.With characteristic warmth, compelling insight, and easy, conversational prose, Maggie-Now poignantly illuminates one woman's struggles and successes as she grapples with timeless questions of desire, duty, self-sacrifice, and the quest for fulfillment. Maggie-Now is an unforgettable masterpiece from one of the twentieth century's greatest talents.Dietland: A Novel
By Sarai Walker. 2015
AN AMC ORIGINAL SERIES FROM EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MARTI NOXON, STARRING JOY NASH AND JULIANNA MARGULIESA Best Book of the YearEntertainment…
Weekly • Bustle • Amazon • Women&’s National Book Association • Kirkus Reviews • BookPage • Kobo • LitReactor &“Audacious and gutsy and heartbreaking — Dietland completely blew me away.&” — Jennifer WeinerThe diet revolution is here. And it&’s armed. Plum Kettle does her best not to be noticed, because when you&’re fat, to be noticed is to be judged. With her job answering fan mail for a teen magazine, she is biding her time until her weight-loss surgery. But when a mysterious woman in colorful tights and combat boots begins following her, Plum falls down a rabbit hole into the world of Calliope House — an underground community of women who reject society&’s rules — and is forced to confront the real costs of becoming &“beautiful.&” At the same time, a guerilla group begins terrorizing a world that mistreats women, and Plum becomes entangled in a sinister plot. The consequences are explosive. &“A giddy revenge fantasy that will shake up your thinking and burrow under your skin&” (Entertainment Weekly), Dietland takes on the beauty industry, gender inequality, and our weight-loss obsession — with fists flying.Neighborhood Girls
By Jessie Ann Foley. 2017
A powerful coming-of-age story about a girl whose encounters with loss, broken friendships, and newfound faith leave her forever changed,…
from Printz Honor winner and Morris Award Finalist Jessie Ann FoleyWhen Wendy Boychuck’s father, a Chicago cop, was escorted from their property in handcuffs, she knew her life would never be the same. Her father gets a years-long jail sentence, her family falls on hard times, and the whispers around their neighborhood are impossible to ignore. If that wasn’t bad enough, she gets jumped walking home from a party one night. Wendy quickly realizes that in order to survive her father’s reputation, she’ll have to make one for herself. Then Wendy meets Kenzie Quintana—a foul-mouthed, Catholic uniform-skirt-hiking alpha—and she knows immediately that she’s found her savior. Kenzie can provide Wendy with the kind of armor a girl needs when she’s trying to outrun her father’s past. Add two more mean girls to the mix—Sapphire and Emily—and Wendy has found herself in Academy of the Sacred Heart’s most feared and revered clique. Makeover complete. But complete is far from what Wendy feels. Instead, she faces the highs and lows of a toxic friendship, the exhaustion that comes with keeping up appearances, and a shattering loss—the only one that could hurt more than losing herself.The Eulogist: A Novel
By Terry Gamble. 2019
From the author of The Water Dancers and Good Family, an exquisitely crafted novel, set in Ohio in the decades…
leading to the Civil War, that illuminates the immigrant experience, the injustice of slavery, and the debts human beings owe to one another, witnessed through the endeavors of one Irish-American family.Cheated out of their family estate in Northern Ireland after the Napoleonic Wars, the Givens family arrives in America in 1819. But in coming to this new land, they have lost nearly everything. Making their way west they settle in Cincinnati, a burgeoning town on the banks of the mighty Ohio River whose rise, like the Givenses’ own, will be fashioned by the colliding forces of Jacksonian populism, religious evangelism, industrial capitalism, and the struggle for emancipation.After losing their mother in childbirth and their father to a riverboat headed for New Orleans, James, Olivia, and Erasmus Givens must fend for themselves. Ambitious James eventually marries into a prosperous family, builds a successful business, and rises in Cincinnati society. Taken by the spirit and wanderlust, Erasmus becomes an itinerant preacher, finding passion and heartbreak as he seeks God. Independent-minded Olivia, seemingly destined for spinsterhood, enters into a surprising partnership and marriage with Silas Orpheus, a local doctor who spurns social mores.When her husband suddenly dies from an infection, Olivia travels to his family home in Kentucky, where she meets his estranged brother and encounters the horrors of slavery firsthand. After abetting the escape of one slave, Olivia is forced to confront the status of a young woman named Tilly, another slave owned by Olivia’s brother-in-law. When her attempt to help Tilly ends in disaster, Olivia tracks down Erasmus, who has begun smuggling runaways across the river—the borderline between freedom and slavery. As the years pass, this family of immigrants initially indifferent to slavery will actively work for its end—performing courageous, often dangerous, occasionally foolhardy acts of moral rectitude that will reverberate through their lives for generations to come.The Yacoubian Building: A Novel
By Alaa Al Aswany. 2006
August Book Sense PickA fading aristocrat and self-proclaimed ‘scientist of women.’ A purring, voluptuous siren. A young shop-girl enduring the…
clammy touch of her boss and hating herself for accepting the modest banknotes he tucks into her pocket afterward. An earnest, devout young doorman, feeling the irresistible pull toward fundamentalism. A cynical, secretly gay newspaper editor, helplessly in love with a peasant security guard. A roof-squatting tailor, scheming to own property. A corrupt and corpulent politician, twisting the Koran to justify taking a mistress.All live in the Yacoubian Building, a once-elegant temple of Art Deco splendor slowly decaying in the smog and hubbub of downtown Cairo, Egypt. In the course of this unforgettable novel, these disparate lives converge, careening inexorably toward an explosive conclusion. Tragicomic, passionate, shockingly frank in its sexuality, and brimming with an extraordinary, embracing human compassion, The Yacoubian Building is a literary achievement of the first order.Names on a Map: A Novel
By Benjamin Alire Sáenz. 2008
“A book of great lyrical power, Names on a Map is a heartbreaking mirror for our own time, about an American family…
torn apart by an unjust war. In Ben Saenz’ dexterous, tender hands, this novel is a salve upon the wounds of both then and now.” —Ruben Martinez, award winning author of Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant TrailA haunting novel from award-winning author and poet Benjamin Alire Saenz, about a family of Hispanic immigrants handling the psychological effects of a war they don’t feel is theirs to fightIn 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, the Espejo family of El Paso, Texas, is just like thousands of other American families coping with a war they feel does not concern them. When Gustavo, the eldest son—the “bad boy” of the family—is told to report for basic training, his ideology and sense of patriotism is put to the test. Opting to flee to Mexico and avoid the draft, Gustavo soon realizes he is no more culturally connected to his ancestral homeland than he is to the America that called him to war. Poignant and insightful, Names on a Map explores with complex detail the harsh nature of immigrant life in the United States—and the emotional tug-of-war experienced by all those with allegiance to more than one country.The Best American Short Stories 2013 (The Best American Series)
By Elizabeth Strout. 2013
&“As our vision becomes more global, our storytelling is stretching in many ways. Stories increasingly change point of view, switch…
location, and sometimes pack as much material as a short novel might,&” writes guest editor Elizabeth Strout. &“It&’s the variety of voices that most indicates the increasing confluence of cultures involved in making us who we are.&” The Best American Short Stories 2013 presents an impressive diversity of writers who dexterously lead us into their corners of the world. In &“Miss Lora,&” Junot Díaz masterfully puts us in the mind of a teenage boy who throws aside his better sense and pursues an intimate affair with a high school teacher. Sheila Kohler tackles innocence and abuse as a child wanders away from her mother, in thrall to a stranger she believes is the &“Magic Man.&” Kirstin Valdez Quade&’s &“Nemecia&” depicts the after-effects of a secret, violent family trauma. Joan Wickersham&’s &“The Tunnel&” is a tragic love story about a mother&’s declining health and her daughter&’s helplessness as she struggles to balance her responsibility to her mother and her own desires. New author Callan Wink&’s &“Breatharians&” unsettles the reader as a farm boy shoulders a grim chore in the wake of his parents&’ estrangement.&“Elizabeth Strout was a wonderful reader, an author who knows well that the sound of one&’s writing is just as important as and indivisible from the content,&” writes series editor Heidi Pitlor. &“Here are twenty compellingly told, powerfully felt stories about urgent matters with profound consequences.&”Call Me the Breeze: A Novel
By Patrick McCabe. 2003
With T. S. Eliot's words as his guide, Joey Tallon embarks on a journey toward enlightenment in the troubling psychedelic-gone-wrong…
atmosphere of the late 1970s. A man deranged by desire, and longing for belonging, Tallon searches for his"place of peace" -- a spiritual landscape located somewhere between his small town in Northern Ireland and Iowa ... and maybe between heaven and hell.The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes: A Stewart Hoag Mystery (Stewart Hoag Mysteries #9)
By David Handler. 1992
HARLAN COBEN calls it "One of my all-time favorite series! ...David Handler is so good at writing one smart, funny…
page-turner after another that he makes it look easy." Fans of JANET EVANOVICH and CARL HIAASEN, get ready. If you haven't yet discovered wisecracking sleuth Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag and his faithful basset hound Lulu, you're in for a sharp, hilarious treat.Once upon a time, Hoagy had it all: a hugely successful debut novel, a gorgeous celebrity wife, the glamorous world of New York City at his feet. These days, he scrapes by as a celebrity ghostwriter. A celebrity ghostwriter who finds himself investigating murders more often than he'd like.And once upon a time, Richard Aintree was the most famous writer in America -- high school students across the country read his one and only novel, a modern classic on par with The Catcher in the Rye. But after his wife's death, Richard went into mourning... and then into hiding. No one has heard from him in twenty years.Until now. Richard Aintree — or someone pretending to be Richard Aintree — has at last reached out to his two estranged daughters. Monette is a lifestyle queen à la Martha Stewart whose empire is crumbling; and once upon a time, Reggie was the love of Hoagy's life. Both sisters have received mysterious typewritten letters from their father. Hoagy is already on the case, having been hired to ghostwrite a tell-all book about the troubled Aintree family. But no sooner does he set up shop in the pool house of Monette's Los Angeles mansion than murder strikes. With Lulu at his side — or more often cowering in his shadow — it's up to Hoagy to unravel the mystery, catch the killer, and pour himself that perfect single-malt Scotch... before it's too late.Blessed are the Meek: A Gabriella Giovanni Mystery (Gabriella Giovanni Mysteries #2)
By Kristi Belcamino. 2014
A rash of high-profile murders all point to reporter Gabriella Giovanni's boyfriend, Detective Sean Donovan, when investigators uncover a single…
link in the deaths: Annalisa Cruz. A decade ago, Cruz seduced Donovan away from a life as a monk, and though their relationship soured long ago … her passion for him has not.As the investigation continues, it becomes increasingly clear that any man who gets involved with Cruz soon ends up dead, including a dot-com millionaire, the mayor of San Francisco, and a police officer. Donovan, the only man to have dated Cruz and survived, is arrested for the murders and dubbed a jealous ex, leaving Gabriella scrambling to find the real killer without ending up as the next body headed for the morgue.Gabriella's search ultimately unearths a dark secret that Donovan had intended to take to the grave. Faced with the knowledge of this terrible truth, Gabriella must tie the past and present together to clear Donovan's name.All In: Book 3 in this unputdownable mystery series from the author of The Inheritance Games (The Naturals #3)
By Jennifer Lynn Barnes. 2015
Cold cases get hot in this unputdownable mystery from Jennifer Lynn Barnes, no.1 New York Times bestselling author of The…
Inheritance Games series. Perfect for fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.Three casinos. Three bodies. Three days.After a string of brutal murders in Las Vegas, Cassie Hobbes and the Naturals are called in to investigate. But even with the team's unique profiling talents, these murders seem baffling: unlike many serial killers, this one uses different methods every time. All of the victims were killed in public, yet the killer does not show up on any security feed. And each victim has a string of numbers tattooed on their wrist. Hidden in the numbers is a code - and the closer the Naturals come to unraveling the mystery, the more perilous the case becomes.Meanwhile, Cassie is dealing with an equally dangerous and much more painful mystery. For the first time in years, there's been a break in her mother's case. As personal issues and tensions between the team mount, Cassie and the Naturals will be faced with impossible odds - and impossible choices.Born smart. Born tough. Born FBI.'The Naturals is Criminal Minds for the YA world, and I loved every page' - Ally Carter, New York Times bestselling authorThe Code of the Hills: An Ozarks Mystery (Ozarks Mysteries)
By Nancy Allen. 2014
To uncover the truth, she'll have to break the code of the hills …In the Missouri Ozarks, some things aren't…
talked about … even abuse. But prosecutor Elsie Arnold is determined to change that.When she is assigned to prosecute a high-profile incest case in which a father is accused of abusing his three young daughters, Elsie is ready to become the Ozarks' avenging angel.But as Elsie sinks her teeth into the case, everything begins to turn sour. The star witness goes missing; the girls refuse to talk about their father, who terrorizes the courtroom from the moment he enters; and Elsie begins to suspect that their tough-as-nails mother has ulterior motives. To make matters worse, Elsie receives gruesome threats from local extremists, warning her to mind her own business.While Elsie swears not to let a sex offender walk, she realizes the odds—and maybe the town—are against her, and her life begins to crumble. But amidst all of the conflict, the safety of three young girls hangs in the balance ...A powerful debut, with the haunting atmosphere of Winter's Bone and the page-turning suspense of Alafair Burke's thrillers.The Man Who Couldn't Miss: A Stewart Hoag Mystery (Stewart Hoag Mysteries #10)
By David Handler. 2018
In the next novel in David Handler’s Edgar award-winning series, Stewart “Hoagy” Hoag and his beloved basset hound, Lulu, investigate…
a murder in a fabled Connecticut summer playhouseHollywood ghostwriter Stewart “Hoagy” Hoag has chronicled the rise, fall, and triumphant return of many a celebrity. At last he’s enjoying his own, very welcome second act. After hitting a creative slump following the success of his debut novel, Hoagy has found inspiration again. Ensconced with his faithful but cowardly basset hound, Lulu, on a Connecticut farm belonging to his ex-wife, Oscar-winning actress Merilee Nash, he’s busy working on a new novel. He’s even holding out hope that he and Merilee might get together again. Life is simple and fulfilling—which of course means it’s time for complications to set in….When the police call to ask if he knows the whereabouts of a man named R.J. Romero, Hoagy learns of a dark secret from his ex-wife’s past. It’s already a stressful time for Merilee, who’s directing a gala benefit production of PrivateLives to rescue the famed but dilapidated Sherbourne Playhouse, where the likes of Katherine Hepburn, Marlon Brando and Merilee herself made their professional stage debuts. Her reputation, as well as the playhouse’s future, is at stake. The cast features three of Merilee’s equally famous Oscar-winning classmates from the Yale School of Drama. But it turns out that there’s more linking them to each other—and to their fellow Yale alum, R.J.—than their alma mater. When one of the cast is found murdered, it will take Hoagy’s sleuthing skills and Lulu’s infallible nose to sniff out the truth…before someone else faces the final curtain call.