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Aftershocks
by William LavenderJessie Wainwright, the daughter of a prominent San Francisco physician, intends to become a doctor herself, despite her father's disapproval. Her dream is nearly lost when a chance encounter reveals a shocking secret--and Jessie sets off in search of answers, temporarily abandoning her goals. Determined to confirm her dark suspicions, Jessie combs the streets of Chinatown. She ultimately witnesses the devastation of the 1906 earthquake and the plight of Chinese immigrants relegated to the nightmare of refugee camps in its wake. With the help of trusted friends, old and new, Jessie discovers the strength to stand up to her domineering father and to break through the racial boundaries of the times. In this powerful story of family, love, and history, Jessie also finds the courage to set out on a daring path that sets her apart from other young women of her generation.
Again, Essie? (Storytelling Math)
by Jenny LacikaCelebrate diversity, math, and the power of storytelling!Rafael wants to protect his toys from his little sister, Essie. Gathering materials from around the house, he builds a wall tall enough and wide enough to keep her out. But will it be strong enough? And what does Essie really want? A playful exploration of physical space and geometry, featuring Chicanx (Mexican American) characters and a glossary of Spanish words.Storytelling Math celebrates children using math in their daily adventures as they play, build, and discover the world around them. Joyful stories and hands-on activities make it easy for kids and their grown-ups to explore everyday math together. Developed in collaboration with math experts at STEM education nonprofit TERC, under a grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation.
Again, Only More Like You
by Catalina MargulisFor fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Jennifer Weiner, Again, Only More Like You offers a poignant and humorous look at friendship and reinvention at 40.She hadn't turned 40 yet, and already she was over it... Dumped. Pregnant. Fired. For best friends Carmen and Ally, the approach of their 40th birthdays is anything but a celebration. Yet, it might be exactly what they need to set their lives on the right path. In the bustling heart of New York, Carmen has it all—a high-profile career, a loving family, and a home straight out of a magazine. But as her 40th looms, her life begins to unravel. A surprise pregnancy, a shocking job loss, and the unwelcome sight of crow's feet force her to rethink her perfect life and what it means to truly have it all. Meanwhile, in the quiet of Maine, Carmen's best friend Ally, a spirited marine biologist, confronts her own crisis as she faces the fallout from a doomed affair with her boss. With her romantic life in shambles and her professional life no better, Ally relocates to Portland, Oregon, hoping for a fresh start and one last chance at love. As their individual journeys to happiness lead them in different directions, the strength of their friendship is tested. Tragedy strikes, bringing hidden resentments to the surface and forcing them to confront their past—and each other. In the process, they must answer a pivotal question: Are their best years really behind them, or is turning 40 just the beginning of their greatest adventures?
Again, Rachel
by Marian KeyesFrom internationally bestselling author Marian Keyes comes the eagerly awaited sequel to Rachel's Holiday.Back in the long ago nineties, Rachel Walsh was a mess.But a spell in rehab transformed everything. Life became very good, very quickly. These days, Rachel has love, family, a great job as an addiction counsellor, she even gardens. Her only bad habit is a fondness for expensive sneakers.But with the sudden reappearance of a man she'd once loved, her life wobbles.She'd thought she was settled. Fixed forever. Is she about to discover that no matter what our age, everything can change?Is it time to think again, Rachel?
Against All Odds
by Paul Kropp Matt MelansonNothing ever came easy for Jeff, he had a tough time at school and hung around with all the wrong kids in the neighbourhood. But when he and his brother are drowning in a storm sewer, Jeff is the one who never gives up.
Against Her Nature: 'a Modern Day Vanity Fair' Mail On Sunday
by Elizabeth BuchanA modern-day take on Vanity Fair, from bestselling novelistElizabeth Buchan. Love, money and children... Life is a risk, however much we try to protect ourselves... Unlike the Frants living their quiet ordered lives in the village of Appleford, Tess and Becky are of the generation that believes it can have everything. Highflyers in the high-octane world of London's high-finance, they move through the opportunists, the short-termists, the sharks, the bullies and the very, very rich to face many choices, not least the one presented by biology: children. As the different generations balance the challenges life throws at them, a tender and unexpected love story emerges alongside a journey to maturity in this bold and beautiful novel.
Against Individualism: A Confucian Rethinking of the Foundations of Morality, Politics, Family, and Religion
by Henry RosemontThe first part of Against Individualism: A Confucian Rethinking of the Foundations of Morality, Politics, Family, and Religion is devoted to showing how and why the vision of human beings as free, independent and autonomous individuals is and always was a mirage that has served liberatory functions in the past, but has now become pernicious for even thinking clearly about, much less achieving social and economic justice, maintaining democracy, or addressing the manifold environmental and other problems facing the world today. In the second and larger part of the book Rosemont proffers a different vision of being human gleaned from the texts of classical Confucianism, namely, that we are first and foremost interrelated and thus interdependent persons whose uniqueness lies in the multiplicity of roles we each live throughout our lives. This leads to an ethics based on those mutual roles in sharp contrast to individualist moralities, but which nevertheless reflect the facts of our everyday lives very well. The book concludes by exploring briefly a number of implications of this vision for thinking differently about politics, family life, justice, and the development of a human-centered authentic religiousness. This book will be of value to all students and scholars of philosophy, political theory, and Religious, Chinese, and Family Studies, as well as everyone interested in the intersection of morality with their everyday and public lives.
Against the Country: A Novel
by Ben MetcalfAgainst the Country is a gift for fans of Southern Gothic and metafiction alike. Set in the Virginia pines, and overrun with failed parents, racist sex offenders, cast-off priests, and suicidal chickens, this novel challenges literary convention even as it attacks our national myth--that the rural naturally engenders good, while the urban breeds an inevitable sin. In a voice both perfectly American and utterly new, Metcalf introduces the reader to Goochland County, Virginia--a land of stubborn soil, voracious insects, lackluster farms, and horrifying trees--and details one family's pitiful struggle to survive there. Eventually it becomes clear that Goochland is not merely the author's setting; it is a growing, throbbing menace that warps and scars every one of his characters' lives. Equal parts fiery criticism and icy farce, Against the Country is the most hilarious sermon one is likely to hear on the subject of our native soil, and the starkest celebration of the language our land produced. The result is a literary tour de force that raises the question: Was there ever a narrator, in all our literature, so precise, so far-reaching, so eloquently misanthropic, as the one encountered here?Advance praise for Against the Country "Exceptional in its verbal brilliance and conscientiousness, Against the Country involves us in a family's anguished and hilarious struggle against the strange dooms that seem peculiar to white rural America. This is a savage and gladdening novel."--Joseph O'Neill, author of Netherland and The Dog "This novel is a lightning strike. It is a surge of electrical energy captured inside sentences. Ben Metcalf is a master of rhetoric and rage and persuasion and darkness and wit. Against the Country is an explosion of a book."--Heidi Julavits, author of The Vanishers "Ben Metcalf is a brilliant writer, and Against the Country is an ingenious and hilarious novel, a glittering, bitter celebration of how the lousiness of life can be redeemed in the hands (and mouth) of a top-shelf teller of life's stories."--Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask and The Fun Parts "Against the Country makes me feel joyful the way Candide, for all its astute gloominess, makes me feel better about the world because such a brilliant, funny thing has been made in it. The intelligence is generous and omnipresent, and every single page made me laugh."--Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances "To find anything reminiscent of this writing you'd need to go back about 150 years, though it sounds new in Metcalf's handling and occasionally even punk. What he has to say about American childhood is frightening and true. Virginia, you have been both honored and shamed by your wayward son."--John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead: Essays "This publisher's debut to beat . . . acid insights, raw energy."--Library JournalFrom the Hardcover edition.-Metcalf is the former literary editor of Harper's Magazine--features an angry young man 'schooled in the subtle truths and blatant lies of a half life in the American countryside, all because my parents did not trust that I would mature to their specifications in town.' Acid insights, raw energy."--Library JournalFrom the Hardcover edition.
Against the Grain: Couples, Gender, And The Reframing Of Parenting
by Gillian RansonDrawing on findings from interviews done with 32 families living in cities across Canada, Ranson challenges dominant understandings of mothering and fathering by looking closely at how couples who have opted for less traditional divisions of labour negotiate their parental and household responsibilities. Included are interviews with breadwinner mothers and caregiver fathers, and with dual-earner couples, both heterosexual and same-sex, who struggle to share equally in the nurture and support of their families. A central claim of the book is that, to the extent that both parents are equally involved in hands-on caregiving, they tend to become, over time, functionally interchangeable and move away from "mothering" and "fathering," and toward parenting. Against the Grain offers us an excellent opportunity to examine how social change happens at the forefront of family life.
Against the Grain: Raising Christ-Focused Children from A to Z
by Dr. Michele WhiteEach letter of the alphabet delineates every chapter. The book can be read from A to Z, or in any given order depending upon the life stage you’re in with your child. Each chapter starts with Scripture, then explores principles and concepts related to that specific letter of the alphabet. Dr. White concludes each chapter with practical and encouraging applications that she calls Alphabet Soup.
Against the Odds
by Laura DrakeA love stronger than fear... Former army sniper Douglas "Bear" Steele wants only to be left alone to live a quiet, peaceful existence in the small town of Widow's Grove. So his attraction to Hope Sanderson is unexpected and inconvenient. Having recently survived a violent bank robbery, Hope has vowed to seize each day and leave behind her safe, ordered life. As Hope and Bear help each other heal, their desire turns to love. But with their lives moving in opposite directions, can they find a balance to let go of the past and embrace the future...together?
Against the Odds
by Marjolijn HofUSBBY Outstanding International Books selection Kiki lives with her mother and father and their very old fat dog, Mona. Life is good except that Kiki's father, a doctor, feels compelled to go off on missions to dangerous and faraway war zones. No matter how persuasive her arguments, Kiki cannot convince him to stay home. Kiki's mother explains to her about odds — how it is very unlikely that her father will die because, after all, how many of her friends' fathers have died? The odds are very good it won't happen. When her father actually does go missing, and as her mother and grandmother get more and more upset, Kiki begins to feel that it's up to her to save him. This award-winning book deals with big moral issues in a serious way, but it is also very funny and deeply human.
Against the Rules (Sweet Valley Twins #9)
by Francine Pascal Jamie SuzanneSophia Rizzo is a good writer on the school newspaper, she's nice, and Elizabeth likes her. But all the other kids at Sweet Valley Middle School -- including Elizabeth's twin sister, Jessica -- make fun of Sophia because her family is poor and her brother is always in trouble. Even Elizabeth's parents tell her to stay away from Sophia. To show Sophia that she's her friend no matter what anybody says, Elizabeth decides to go against strict orders from her parents and throw a secret birthday party for Sophia. But is Elizabeth willing to pay the price if she's caught?
Against the Season: A Novel
by Jane RuleA decades-spanning novel of sisterhood and family secrets from an &“extraordinary writer&” (Katherine V. Forrest). Born lame, Amelia Larson lives in the house that has been in her family for generations. Now she has a decision to make: Should she honor the dying wish of her sister, Beatrice, to burn her diaries? There are sixty-nine in all: one journal for each year of Beatrice&’s life since the age of six. Beginning in 1913 and traversing World War I and beyond, the diaries become a moving counterpoint to Amelia&’s life as they unpeel layers of family history. As the past starts to impinge on the present, her relations—then and now—come to vivid life. Told from alternating points of view, Against the Season opens an illuminating window into small-town life. As the sins and secrets of a family are revealed through the sometimes-faulty lens of memory, it is a story about the seasons of life and the ties that bind us even beyond death.
Against the Wind: A Novel
by Jim TilleyIn this dramatic debut novel about relationships, six individuals&’ complicated lives are intertwined after a chance reunion.A successful environmental lawyer is forced to take himself to task when he realizes that everything about his work has betrayed his core beliefs. A high school English teacher asks her former high school love to take up her environmental cause. A transgender adolescent male raised by his grandparents struggles to excel in a world hostile to his kind. A French-Canadian political science professor finds himself left with a choice between his cherished separatist cause and his marriage and family. An accomplished engineer is chronically unable to impress his more accomplished father sufficiently to be named head of the international wind technology company his father founded. The Quebec separatist party&’s Minister of Natural Resources, a divorcée, finds herself caught between her French-Canadian lover and an unexpected English-Canadian suitor.Praise for Against the Wind&“An intricate and elegantly compelling novel, notable for both its political and personal acuity. Jim Tilley writes with deep feeling for his characters and great command of his fascinating materials.&”—Peter Ho Davies, author of The Fortunes&“The writing is brilliant and economical, especially about the environment, and there&’s all sorts of information here for the taking, but essentially this is a novel of character. And a very good one.&” —Library Journal&“Tilley handles decades-long character arcs with empathy, resulting in a resonant and humanistic novel.&” —Kirkus Reviews
Agatha Arch is Afraid of Everything: A Novel
by Kristin BairA quirky, nervous wreck of a New England mom is forced to face her many fears in this touching, irresistible novel from author Kristin Bair.Agatha Arch's life shatters when she discovers her husband in their backyard shed, in flagrante delicto, giving the local dog walker some heavy petting. Suddenly, Agatha finds herself face to face with everything that frightens her...and that's a loooooong list.Agatha keeps those she loves close. Everyone else, she keeps as far away as possible. So she's a mystery to nearly everyone in her New England town. To her husband, she's a saucy, no-B.S. writer. To her Facebook Moms group, she's a provocateur. To her neighbor, she's a standoffish pain in the butt. To her sons, she's chocolate pudding with marshmallows. And to her shrink, she's a bundle of nerves on the brink of a cataclysmic implosion.Defying her abundant assortment of anxieties, Agatha dons her "spy pants"--a pair of khakis whose many pockets she crams with binoculars, fishing line, scissors, flashlight, a Leatherman Super Tool 300 EOD, candy, and other espionage essentials--and sets out to spy on her husband and the dog walker. Along the way, she finds another intriguing target to follow: a mysterious young woman who's panhandling on the busiest street in town.It's all a bit much for timorous Agatha. But with the help of her Bear Grylls bobblehead, a trio of goats, and a dog named Balderdash, Agatha may just find the courage to build a better life."Fans of Where'd You Go, Bernadette and Elinor Oliphant Is Completely Fine will love this clever romp."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
Agathe: Or, The Forgotten Sister
by Robert MusilFrom the author of 'A Man without Qualities,' a novel about spirituality in the modern world. Agathe is the sister of Ulrich, the restless and elusive &“man without qualities&” at the center of Robert Musil&’s great, unfinished novel of the same name. For years Agathe and Ulrich have ignored each other, but when brother and sister find themselves reunited over the bier of their dead father, they are electrified. Each is the other&’s spitting image, and Agathe, who has just separated from her husband, is even more defiant and inquiring than Ulrich. Beginning with a series of increasingly intense &“holy conversations,&” the two gradually enlarge the boundaries of sexuality, sensuality, identity, and understanding in pursuit of a new, true form of being that they are seeking to discover.Robert Musil&’s The Man Without Qualities is perhaps the most profoundly exploratory and unsettling masterpiece of twentieth-century fiction. Agathe, or, The Forgotten Sister reveals with new clarity a particular dimension of this multidimensional book—the dimension that meant the most to Musil himself and that inspired some of his most searching writing. The outstanding translator Joel Agee captures the acuity, audacity, and unsettling poetry of a book that is meant to be nothing short of life-changing.
Agathe's Summer
by Didier PourqueryOne morning in August of 2007, Didier Pourquery’s daughter, Agathe, only a few days away from her twenty-third birthday, stopped breathing. Seven years after her death, her father tells her story, based on his notes taken during the last three weeks of her life. He shares not only his sadness and loss, but also the joy that characterized his relationship with his daughter. At her birth, Agathe’s doctors said the average life expectancy for a child born with cystic fibrosis was twenty-five years. Once he learned his daughter only had a few weeks left to live, Didier Pouquery began writing daily about her last weeks. The notes he took then became the source of this book: a homage that is full of hope and light, even as it boldly highlights deep human frailty and the pain of losing a child. Pourquery alternates between an account of Agathe’s physical condition and a letter addressed to her after her death. We get to know her—and her father—through this lyrical and poignant portrait and ode. Who was this joyful and straight-talking girl? How did she grow up in the shadow of this looming disease? How was she able to help those around her, even as she faced a certain and early death? Although Agathe’s Summer is one father’s testimony to the short life of a child grown into a young woman, it is also the story of the love, hope, fear, and joy that speaks to all parents.
Age: A Love Story
by Hortense CalisherA novel that examines aging and marriage with sincerity and insightRupert and Gemma, an elderly couple still very much in love, know that death will inevitably come for one of them before taking the other, so they keep private journals to ensure that the survivor&’s mate will never truly be gone, living on instead through his or her words. Age is the narrative of Rupert and Gemma&’s lives: their similarities, their differences, and the ways in which the two are irreversibly entwined. Each writes of life&’s mundane events—social outings, errands, a quiet night at home—that assume wistful meaning when viewed through the lens of memory.
The Age of Anxiety: A Novel
by Pete TownshendIn his debut novel, rock legend Pete Townshend explores the anxiety of modern life and madness in a story that stretches across two generations of a London family, their lovers, collaborators, and friends.A former rock star disappears on the Cumberland moors. When his wife finds him, she discovers he has become a hermit and a painter of apocalyptic visions.An art dealer has drug-induced visions of demonic faces swirling in a bedstead and soon his wife disappears, nowhere to be found.A beautiful Irish girl, who has stabbed her father to death is determined to seduce her best friend's husband.A young composer begins to experience aural hallucinations, expressions of the fear and anxiety of the people of London. He constructs a maze in his back garden.Driven by passion and musical ambition, events spiral out of control-good drugs and bad drugs, loves lost and found, families broken apart and reunited. Conceived jointly as an opera, The Age of Anxiety deals with mythic and operatic themes. Hallucinations and soundscapes haunt this novel, which on one level is an extended meditation on manic genius and the dark art of creativity.
The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton'Wharton's dazzling skills as a stylist, creator of character, ironical observer and unveiler of passionate, thwarted emotions have earned her a devoted following’ Sunday TimesNewland Archer and May Welland are the perfect couple. He is a wealthy young lawyer and she is a lovely and sweet-natured girl. All seems set for success until the arrival of May's unconventional cousin Ellen Olenska, who returns from Europe without her husband and proceeds to shake up polite New York society. To Newland, she is a breath of fresh air and a free spirit, but the bond that develops between them throws his values into confusion and threatens his relationship with May.‘Wharton evocatively records the high society of New York's gilded age’ Daily Mail
An Age of Madness: A Novel
by David MaineA Boston psychiatrist must confront her own inner demons in a novel that “peels away the layers of what can be known and what can be admitted” (Stuart Archer Cohen, author of The Army of the Republic).Dr. Regina Moss is a dedicated healer with a reputation that inspires colleagues and patients alike. Yet Regina is haunted by her past. Her daughter barely speaks to her. And she can’t stop thinking about the lanky new tech on the ward.Grief and trauma simmer just beneath Regina’s brash attitude and biting wit. But as her armor begins to crack, the reader is drawn deep into her troubled psyche. Full of startling revelations and heartrending twists, An Age of Madness is “a confidently rendered portrait of one woman’s journey to recover from loss” (Foreword Reviews).
Age of Opportunity
by Laurence SteinbergA leading authority draws on new research to explain why the adolescent years are so developmentally crucial, and what we must do to raise happier, more successful kids.Adolescence now lasts longer than ever before. And as world-renowned expert on adolescent psychology Dr. Laurence Steinberg argues, this makes these years the key period in determining individuals' life outcomes, demanding that we change the way we parent, educate, and understand young people.In Age of Opportunity, Steinberg leads readers through a host of new findings -- including groundbreaking original research -- that reveal what the new timetable of adolescence means for parenting 13-year-olds (who may look more mature than they really are) versus 20-somethings (who may not be floundering even when it looks like they are). He also explains how the plasticity of the adolescent brain, rivaling that of years 0 through 3, suggests new strategies for instilling self-control during the teenage years. Packed with useful knowledge, Age of Opportunity is a sweeping book in the tradition of Reviving Ophelia, and an essential guide for parents and educators of teenagers.
The Age of Shiva: A Novel
by Manil Suri"A stunning novel, proof that Manil Suri is a major storyteller of heart and intelligence." —Amy TanThe Age of Shiva is at once a powerful story of a country in turmoil and an "unflinchingly honest" portrait of maternal love—"intricately interwoven with the ancient rites and myths" (Booklist) crucial to India's history. Meera, the narrator, is seventeen years old when she catches her first glimpse of Dev, performing a song so infused with passion that it arouses in her the first flush of erotic longing. She wonders if she can steal him away from Roopa, her older, more beautiful sister, who has brought her along to see him. It is only when her son is born that Meera begins to imagine a life of fulfillment. She engulfs him with a love so deep, so overpowering, that she must fear its consequences. Meera's unforgettable story, embodying Shiva as a symbol of religious upheaval, places The Age of Shiva among the most compelling novels to emerge from contemporary India. Reading group guide included.
The Age of Shiva
by Manil SuriMeera, the narrator, is seventeen years old when she catches her first glimpse of Dev, performing a song so infused with passion that it arouses in her the first flush of erotic longing. She wonders if she can steal him away from Roopa, her older, more beautiful sister, who has brought her along to see him. It is only when her son is born that Meera begins to imagine a life of fulfillment. She engulfs him with a love so deep, so overpowering, that she must fear its consequences.