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Clock Without Hands: A Novel (Library Of America Carson Mccullers Edition Ser. #1)
By Carson McCullers. 1998
An &“impeccable&” novel about race relations and responsibility set in the civil-rights-era South, by the author of The Heart Is…
a Lonely Hunter (The Atlantic Monthly). In a small Georgia town, pharmacist J. S. Malone, diagnosed with leukemia, is given a mere year to live—and a lifetime&’s worth of regret over years and opportunities wasted. Meanwhile, Judge Clane, still reeling from the suicide of his son, looks for meaning in the past and judgment in the present. Clane&’s grandson, Jester, seeks identity in the wake of his father&’s selfish act. And all three of them find their stories inexorably bound together as Sherman Pew, a young black man with blue eyes, looking to uncover the truth about his parentage, moves into a white neighborhood, thus upsetting the fragile balance of the town. &“One of the few first-rate novelists of our time,&” Carson McCullers deftly weaves a story of life and death, love and hate, progress and stagnation, a brilliant examination of the universal human experiences that at once bind us together and tear us apart (Kirkus Reviews).Certain Women: A Novel
By Madeleine L'Engle. 1992
An award-winning author explores the meaning of family in a novel that draws parallels between the lives of a modern…
man and an ancient biblical king. As he struggles with cancer, legendary screen actor David Wheaton contemplates the one role that always eluded him: King David. Comparing his own life to that of the biblical ruler, David recalls his own numerous wives and children, forcing his daughter Emma to confront the memories of her family&’s unconventional past. As David&’s loved ones gather to say goodbye to their patriarch, Certain Women masterfully links past and present in an emotional story rich in dramatic tradition, showcasing the struggles—both ordinary and extraordinary—of family life. From the renowned author of A Wrinkle in Time, Certain Women is a wise and &“memorable work&” (Kirkus Reviews). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Madeleine L&’Engle including rare images from the author&’s estate.The Night Gwen Stacy Died: A Novel
By Sarah Bruni. 2013
&“Part tangled love story and part love affair with comics . . . centers on that tenuous bit of time between childhood and adulthood,…
when anything seems possible.&” —Library Journal Sheila Gower will do anything to get away from small-town nowhere Iowa and her dead-end swing-shift job at a gas station. Right now, all she has is her dreams. So does the cute young stranger who calls himself Peter Parker—a daredevil cabdriver with an immersive Spider-Man obsession, a gun, and a plan: They&’ll fake a kidnapping, empty the register, and head for Chicago to complete a mysterious mission. Sheila thinks it&’s a marvel of an idea. Until the colorful rush of their fantasy getaway collides with reality. &“The literary equivalent of a pop music mashup . . . Inspired by &‘Spider-Man,&’ Westerns, coming-of-age novels and Bonnie and Clyde&” (Chicago Tribune), The Night Gwen Stacy Died is both &“superbly suspenseful&” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) and &“sweetly eccentric&” (The New York Times)—a love story about loss, mutual rescue, and finding our real identities.The Guy Not Taken: Stories
By Jennifer Weiner. 2004
“Eleven marvelous short stories” by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Summer Place and Mrs. Everything (Entertainment Weekly).In…
these tender and often hilarious stories by Jennifer Weiner, we meet Marlie Davidow, home alone with her new baby late one Friday night when she wanders onto her ex’s online wedding registry and wonders where she’d be if she’d wound up with the guy not taken. We stumble on Bruce Guberman, liquored-up and ready for anything on the night of his best friend’s bachelor party, until stealing his girlfriend’s tiny rat terrier becomes more complicated than he’d planned. We find Jessica Norton listing her beloved New York City apartment in the hope of winning her broker’s heart. And we follow an unlikely friendship between two very different new mothers, and the choices that bring them together—and pull them apart.From a teenager coming to terms with her father’s disappearance to a widow accepting two young women into her home, these stories demonstrate Weiner’s amazing ability to find hope and humor, longing and love in the hidden corners of our common experiences.“Utterly readable.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette“Another delightful example of Jennifer Weiner’s tender way with words and emotions.” —Harper’s Bazaar“Very, very funny.” —Philadelphia Inquirer“Puts Weiner on the map as one of her generation’s best literary voices.” —The Boston HeraldPanorama City: A Novel
By Antoine Wilson. 2012
“As enjoyable a comic novel as I have read all year, a coming of age story that vividly captures the…
modern world through innocent eyes.” —Largehearted BoyOppen Porter thinks he’s dying. (He’s not.)From his hospital bed, with tape recorder in hand, he unspools his tale for the benefit of his unborn son, the tale of his forty-day journey from innocence to experience, from self-described “slow absorber” to man of the world.What follows is a trip through modern-day southern California that establishes Panorama City as “an astonishing narrative that offers the pleasures of irony without the sting . . . The great triumph of the book is that Oppen matures without spoiling. He comes to affirm the integrity of his innocence, which is its own wisdom” (Los Angeles Review of Books).“Makes you see the world afresh . . . delightful.” —The New York Times Book Review“Often very funny. It is filled with joy and wonder, and a sort of goodness you had stopped believing might even be possible.” —Peter Carey, Booker Prize–winning author“Though it takes place in down-at-heel Panorama City with its crappy burger franchises and abandoned shopping carts, The World According to Oppen is full of wonders and mysteries.” —Stewart O’Nan, national bestselling author“Charming, absurd, very funny, and best of all, human through and through.” —Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize–winning author“Antoine Wilson draws us into the weird, wonderful world of Oppen Porter, whose advice and lessons are jarringly original, funny, and moving.” —Steve Hely, winner of the Thurber AwardSkinny Island: More Tales of Manhattan
By Louis Auchincloss. 1987
Twelve stories contemplating destiny and detailing the life of Manhattan’s upper class over the course of one hundred years, from…
the author of Honorable Men.It’s only twelve miles long and two miles wide, but it has more money for its area, more history packed into its relatively brief settlement, and more emotional and intellectual energy coursing through its streets than any other place on earth. Manhattan is the setting for all of Louis Auchincloss’s fiction, and it is the stage on which those New Yorkers whose roots go down to its bedrock play out the drama of their lives.From the turn of the century to our present urban follies, these stories follow the fortunes of the socially secure and powerful as they try to cope with the changes shaped by the momentous events and growing anxieties of recent decades. Taken together, the tales weave a larger pattern of human strengths and foibles that bemuses the mind and touches the heart.The elegant prose, crystalline dialogue, immense insight into the mores, preoccupations, and afflictions of the rich, and the connoisseur’s sense of both art and life that are characteristic of Auchincloss—all are here, but with a depth of passion and irony exceeding anything he has accomplished in the past.Praise for Skinny Island“Many of Auchincloss’ wealthy and Waspy protagonists, caught in such fine conflict, find it difficult to defend their dwindling kind or, conversely, to rebel against their confining values . . . . With this, his 40th book, Auchincloss has yet to exhaust his art, or his loyal readers.” —Kirkuks ReviewsBaudolino: A Novel (Booket/columna Ser. #Vol. 28)
By Umberto Eco. 2002
A self-confessed liar spins a fascinating tale of his life in this &“comic and brilliantly baffling&” historical novel by the…
author of The Name of the Rose (The Guardian, UK). Constantinople, 1204. The Byzantine capital is under siege by the knights of the Fourth Crusade. Amid the carnage and confusion, one Baudolino saves a historian and high court official from certain death at the hands of the crusading warriors—and proceeds to regale him with the fantastical story of his life. Born a simple peasant in northern Italy, Baudolino has two major gifts: a talent for learning languages and a skill in telling lies. As a boy he meets a foreign commander who adopts Baudolino and sends him to the university in Paris, where he makes a number of adventurous friends. Spurred on by myths and their own reveries, they decide to go in search of the legendary priest-king Prester John who is said to rule over a vast kingdom in the East. The kingdom they seek is a phantasmagorical land of strange creatures with eyes on their shoulders and mouths on their stomachs; of eunuchs, unicorns, and lovely maidens. With dazzling digressions, outrageous tricks, extraordinary feeling, and vicarious reflections on our postmodern age, Baudolino is Eco the storyteller at his brilliant best.The Love Letters: A Novel
By Madeleine L'Engle. 1966
Past and present collide in this heartfelt novel of love and loss from the National Book Award–winning author of A…
Wrinkle in Time. After the tragic death of her son and the seeming collapse of her marriage, Charlotte Napier flees to Portugal in the hopes of finding guidance from her mentor: her mother-in-law, Violet. Instead, she finds solace in the letters of Mariana Alcoforado, a seventeenth-century nun. Charlotte and Mariana&’s stories may be different in origin, but they share the same inner turmoil. As she reads the letters, Mariana&’s spiritual journey sheds light on Charlotte&’s own crisis. Finding inspiration in the nun&’s struggles with sin, temptation, and faith, Charlotte gains perspective on her own mind—and sets out to accept the demanding, challenging nature of love. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Madeleine L&’Engle including rare images from the author&’s estate.The Girl with the Louding Voice: A Read with Jenna Pick (A Novel)
By Abi Daré. 2020
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK! &“Brave, fresh . . . unforgettable.&”—The New York…
Times Book Review &“A celebration of girls who dare to dream.&”—Imbolo Mbue, author of Behold the Dreamers (Oprah&’s Book Club pick) Shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and recommended by The New York Times, Marie Claire, Vogue, Essence, PopSugar, Daily Mail, Electric Literature, Red, Stylist, Daily Kos, Library Journal, The Everygirl, and Read It Forward! The unforgettable, inspiring story of a teenage girl growing up in a rural Nigerian village who longs to get an education so that she can find her &“louding voice&” and speak up for herself, The Girl with the Louding Voice is a simultaneously heartbreaking and triumphant tale about the power of fighting for your dreams. Despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in her path, Adunni never loses sight of her goal of escaping the life of poverty she was born into so that she can build the future she chooses for herself – and help other girls like her do the same. Her spirited determination to find joy and hope in even the most difficult circumstances imaginable will &“break your heart and then put it back together again&” (Jenna Bush Hager on The Today Show) even as Adunni shows us how one courageous young girl can inspire us all to reach for our dreams…and maybe even change the world.Pale Morning Light With Violet Swan: A Novel of a Life in Art
By Deborah Reed. 2020
This novel of a family secret revealed as a famous painter nears the end of her life is a “heart-lifting…
testament to the power of memory and love and art” (Margaret Renkl, author of Late Migrations).Ninety-three-year-old Violet Swan has spent a lifetime translating tragedy and hardship into art, becoming famous for her abstract paintings, which evoke tranquility, innocence, and joy. For nearly a century she has lived a peaceful, private life on the coast of Oregon. The “business of Violet” is run by her only child, Francisco, and his wife, Penny. But while death waits on the horizon for Violet, an earthquake sets a series of events in motion and her deeply hidden past begins to resurface. When her beloved grandson returns home with a family secret in tow, Violet is forced to come to terms with the life she left behind so long ago—a life her family knows nothing about . . . A generational saga set against the backdrop of twentieth-century America and moving into the present day, Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan is the story of a girl who escaped rural Georgia at fourteen during World War II, crossing the country alone and broke. It is the story of how that girl met the man who would become her devoted husband, how she became a celebrated artist, and above all, how her life, inspired by nothing more than the way she imagined it to be, would turn out to be her greatest masterpiece.“Reed finely balances the cavalcade of revelations with a poised, multilayered portrait of a complex life.” —Booklist “Prepare to be spellbound.” —Rene Denfeld, author of TheChild FinderThe Memoirs of Laetitia Horsepole
By John Fuller. 2001
Discovered in the secret compartment of a North Italian cabinet, this enchanting manuscript may or may not be complete, and…
it may or may not be intended for posterity. Undeterred by these uncertainties, John Fuller gives us the early nineteenth-century 'memoirs' of Laetitia Horsepole, painter, philosopher and femme fatale. Shelley, apparently, came across this formidable woman, aged ninety, on his travels through Italy, and became her confidant and neighbour. Why, the reader may wonder, is she not better known? Why indeed? That long spell in Madagascar certainly interrupted her career. She was prickly and disinclined to ingratiate herself with the arbiters of fashionable taste. And then her virtual disappearance to Italy didn't help matters. But her obscurity gives added piquancy to the memoirs which - her idiosyncratic art theory and philosophy apart - are above all a dramatic eighteenth-century adventure in five acts which reflect her tempestuous involvement with the five 'husbands' of her life, from the brutish Crowther and the dull and the rich but louche Count Chiavari. Laetitia reflects on the vagaries of love and erotic involvement, on art and men, on flora and fauna, and reveals for the first time what actually happened in Madagascar. Shamelessly enjoyable, teasingly allusive, irresistibly funny and sometimes sad, Laetitia's is quite simply a brilliant and bewitching romance full of truths that lie deeper than fact.Memoirs of a Dipper
By Nell Leyshon. 2015
'A reading experience that hums with an electric energy that never gets boring and feels shockingly, painfully real.' - The…
Times 'There's different ways to do it: I can slowly move closer step by step, or I can do it in one movement and bump into them. Easiest is in a pub then I can put my drink too close to theirs. Move my stool near theirs. Anything to cross the line.'Gary is a dipper, a burglar, a thief. He is still at junior school when his father first takes him out on the rob, and proves a fast learner: not much more than a child the first time he gets caught, he is a career criminal as soon as he is out again. But Gary is also fiercely intelligent - he often knows more about the antique furniture he is stealing than the people who own it, and is confident in his ability to trick his way out of any situation, always one step ahead. But all that changes when he falls for Mandy...The Memoir of an Anti-Hero (Penguin Modern Classics)
By Kornel Filipowicz. 1961
The Second World War. Poland. Our narrator has no intention of being a hero. He plans to survive this war,…
whatever it takes.Meticulously he recounts his experiences: the slow unravelling of national events as well as uncomfortable personal encounters on the street, in the café, at the office, in his love affairs. He is intimate but reserved; conversational but careful; reflective but determined. As he becomes increasingly and chillingly alienated from other people, the reader is drawn into complicit acquiescence. We are forced to consider what it means to be heroic and how we ourselves would behave in the same circumstances.Written in 1961, this is the masterpiece of one of the great Polish writers of the twentieth century.Martini Henry
By Sara Crowe. 2016
Life isn’t an exact science. Things can be troublesome. Like pregnant step-mothers, the ins-and-outs of French existentialism . . .…
having an unexceptional name. In 1988, seventeen-year-old Sue Bowl has a diary, big dreams and £4.73. What she wants most of all is to make it as a writer, as well as stop her decadent aunt Coral spending money she doesn't have. Living in their crumbling ancestral home should provide plenty of inspiration, but between falling in love, hunting for missing heirlooms and internship applications, things keep getting in the way.So when a young literary professor moves in and catches Sue's eye, life begins to take an unexpected turn . . .From the author of Campari for Breakfast, a witty and enchanting novel about what happens after you think you’ve grown up and fallen in love, perfect for fans of I Capture the Castle, Love, Nina and Where’d You Go Bernadette.Marriage: Vintage Minis (Vintage Minis)
By Jane Austen. 2018
Why do we set so much store by marriage? Jane Austen was fascinated by this question, subjecting it to her…
forensic eye and wonderfully ironic wit again and again. Here are stolen glances and nervous advances, meddling parents and self-important cousins, society whisperings and the fluttering hearts of young lovers. All of them have their own views and expectations of marriage, and Austen’s are the wisest of all. Selected from the novels Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion by Jane Austen. VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS. A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us humanLittle Dorrit
By Charles Dickens. 2012
Amy Dorrit (known as Little Dorrit) was born in the Marshalsea debtors' prison in London. She has lived there with…
her father and two elder siblings for all of her twenty-two years, only leaving to work each day as a seamstress for the forbidding Mrs Clennam. But Amy's fortunes are about to change: the arrival of Mrs Clennam's son Arthur, back from working in China, heralds the beginning of stunning revelations not just about Amy but also about Arthur himself.Mansfield Park
By Jane Austen. 2008
Fanny Price's rich relatives offer her a home at Mansfield Park so that she can be properly brought up. However,…
Fanny's childhood is a lonely one as she is never allowed to forget her place. Her only ally is her cousin Edmund. But when the glamorous and exciting Henry and Mary Crawford arrive in the area, Edmund starts to grow close to Mary and Fanny finds herself dealing with feelings she has never experienced before.'Full of the energies of discord - sibling rivalry, greed, ambition, illicit sexual passion and vanity' Margaret DrabbleThe Mayor of Casterbridge
By Thomas Hardy. 2010
'A tale of true tragedy - a man of potential brought down by his own fatal flaw - wonderfully vivid…
and strong' Joanna TrollopeThe Mayor of Casterbridge is a man haunted by his past. In his youth he betrayed his wife and baby daughter in a shocking incident that led him to swear never to touch alcohol again for twenty-one years. He has since risen from his humble origins to become a respected pillar of the community in Casterbridge, but his secrets cannot stay hidden forever and he has many hard lessons left to learn. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LUCY HUGHES-HALLETTMatisse's War
By Peter Everett. 1996
At seventy, Henri Matisse is a trim, clean old gentleman with a passion for naked women. He is UN MONSTRE…
SACRE who depicts with passion and conviction only what he takes pleasure in, only what he chooses to see. He is art personified. If there were no Matisse there would be no art as such. . . . He has purged everything from his painting except anxieties concerning structure and colour; his struggle is with these alone! MATISSE'S WAR is a minutely researched yet fictional account of Matisse's life during the years 1939-1945. It is also a superb portrait of the lives of the major French artists and writers under the German occupation. Louis Aragon, Malraux, Picasso and Bonnard all appear prominently in the narrative.Little Aunt Crane
By Geling Yan. 2008
In the last days of World War II, the Japanese occupation of Manchuria has collapsed. As the Chinese move in,…
the elders of the Japanese settler village of Sakito decide to preserve their honour by killing all the villagers in an act of mass suicide. Only 16-year-old Tatsuru escapes. But Tatsuru's trials have just begun. As she flees, she falls into the hands of human traffickers. She is sold to a wealthy Chinese family, where she becomes Duohe - the clandestine second wife to the only son, and the secret bearer of his children. Against all odds, Duohe forms an unlikely friendship with the first wife Xiaohuan, united by the unshakeable bonds of motherhood and family. Spanning several tumultuous decades of Mao’s rule, Little Aunt Crane is a novel about love, bravery and survival, and how humanity endures in the most unlikely of circumstances.