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I Am My Own Wife: A Play
by Doug WrightI Am My Own Wife is the winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.From the Obie Award-winning author of Quills comes this acclaimed one-man show, which explores the astonishing true story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. A transvestite and celebrated antiques dealer who successfully navigated the two most oppressive regimes of the past century-the Nazis and the Communists--while openly gay and defiantly in drag, von Mahlsdorf was both hailed as a cultural hero and accused of colluding with the Stasi. In an attempt to discern the truth about Charlotte, Doug Wright has written "at once a vivid portrait of Germany in the second half of the twentieth century, a morally complex tale about what it can take to be a survivor, and an intriguing meditation on everything from the obsession with collecting to the passage of time" (Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times).
Welcome to Heavenly Heights: A Novel
by Risa MillerA first novel written by PEN Discovery Award Winner Risa Miller, Welcome to Heavenly Heights describes a group of American Jews who have left the United States, not just to move to Israel, but to live in a settlement on the West Bank. Miller conjures a culture and a movement--part religion, part pipe dream--viewed through the pinhole of one ragged apartment building's door: its families, their dinners, their weddings, their marriages, their sorrows. While bombs can be heard at the edges of these pages, it is inside the settlement, Heavenly Heights where Miller's delicate, understated prose limns the lives of these tender souls.
A Colorful Way of Living: How to Be More, Create More, Do More the Vera Bradley Way
by Barbara Bradley BaekgaardFrom the co-founder of the Vera Bradley empire, a practical and inspiring book that shows women how to awaken their full potential, at any age."This place could use some color!" That's what Barbara Bradley said to her friend Pat during an airport layover. It was 1982 and all the women could see was a succession of drab, bulky suitcases. When they returned home to Indiana, Barbara and her business partner got out a few Simplicity patterns and a Singer sewing machine and set to work. And the Vera Bradley Company was born.A Colorful Way of Living offers practical, inspiring advice to empower women of all ages to navigate life by the values that provide the foundation of the Vera Bradley empire. Women looking for the encouragement to start a new chapter, women balancing career and family, and new graduates entering the workforce will all benefit from the Baekgaard’s learned wisdom has as it applies to career, life, and relationships. Lessons include “Noticing Every Detail,” “Choosing Nice,” and “Remembering Always—there’s enough room for everyone.” In this highly readable book, Barbara Bradley Baekgaard shares the values that have helped her to thrive in business, health, and relationships--in every aspect of her personal and professional life.
Dead Egotistical Morons (Paul Turner Mysteries)
by Mark Richard ZubroBoys4U is the world's most popular singing group - at least among teenaged girls - and they have closed out their sold-out world tour with a series of shows in Chicago's brand new arena. The premier group of the inexplicably popular "boy band" trend, they've just finished their very last concert of the tour. While hundreds of tour members, well-wishers, label executives, and various hangers on wait to celebrate another wildly successful tour, the lead singer is found murdered - shot in the back of the head at close range - in the shower of the backstage dressing area. To make matters more distressing, the crime itself was almost impossible - there was tight security on the shower area at all times, the only other people back there were the other members of the band, and none of the dozens of people in the next room report having heard a shot. While the international press is engaged in an unprecedented feeding frenzy over the sensationalistic murder, Chicago Police Detectives Paul Turner and his partner Buck Fenwick have pulled the unenviable task of investigating the murder. But even the initial appearances are deceiving and as they dig deeper into the case, they uncover more disturbing truths beneath the wholesome façade of Boys4U. Now they have untangle an increasingly complex web if they are to stop a determined killer before more victims are claimed.Dead Egotistical Morons is Mark Richard Zubro's wildest mystery yet, and it will have you guessing until the very end ...
On Balance
by Adam Phillips"Balancing acts," writes Adam Phillips, "are entertaining because they are risky, but there are situations in which it is more dangerous to keep your balance than to lose it." In these exhilarating and casually brilliant essays, the philosopher and psychoanalyst examines literature, fairy tales, works of art, and case studies to reveal the paradoxes inherent in our appetites and fears. How do we know when enough is enough? Are there times when too much is just right? Why is Cinderella's biggest problem not the prince but other women? What can Richard III's furious sense of his own helplessness tell us of our own desires? On Balance shows Phillips's bravura gift for linking disparate ideas and the dreamers that dreamed them into something beautiful, revelatory, and essential.
The Thirties: From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period (Edmund Wilson's Notebooks and Diaries)
by Edmund WilsonFrom one of America's greatest literary critics comes Edmund Wilson's insightful and candid record of the 1930's, The Thirties: From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period.Here, continuing from Wilson's previous journal, The Twenties, the narrator moves from the youthful concerns of the Jazz Age to his more substantial middle years, exploring the decade's plunge from affluence and exploring the tenets of Communism. His personal life is also amply represented, from his marriage to Margaret Canby and her subsequent tragic death to various erotic episodes with unidentified women.
Past Tense (Detective Chief Inspector C.D. Sloan)
by Catherine Aird"Aird's delicious concoctions are never less than elegant and mischievously sharp." —The Times (London) DCI Sloan and Constable Crosby are on the case again. A young girl has been murdered, found dead in the river. But what connection does she have to the recently deceased Josephine Short? Following the twisting trail of evidence, Sloan works to uncover the truth behind the life of Josephine Short and uncover the murderer behind a young girl's death.
Desert Angel
by Charlie PriceFourteen-year-old Angel wakes up one morning at her desert trailer home to discover her mother has been murdered by a lowlife named Scotty, who has vanished. Angel has no water, no weapon, but she knows that Scotty, an expert tracker and hunter, will surface soon in order to eliminate her as a witness. She has to run, to disappear, if she is to survive and tell the world what happened. Her flight takes her through a harsh landscape to places she never expected to be, forcing her to trust others for the first time and strengthening her in ways she doesn't even anticipate . . . until it's time to take a stand.
Raising the Bar: The Championship Years of Tiger Woods
by Tim RosaforteSportswriter Tim Rosaforte presents an eye-opening account on the life and times of Tiger Woods with Raising the Bar.The Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, the PGA Championship.The Career Grand Slam.At age 24.He could very well be the greatest golfer to ever play the game.Raising the Bar is the story of how Tiger Woods changed his life, his game, and the way America views golf. There have been many biographies written about Tiger's life and early days with the PGA, but each ends with his triumphant victory in the 1997 Masters Championship. In the last few years Tiger has endured a lifetime of experiences, including his growing pains, his perceived slump in 1998, his incredible winning streak from 1999-2000, culminating in his career grand slam. Critically acclaimed golf writer and commentator Tim Rosaforte has watched Tiger since he burst onto the golfing scene and been an up-close observer of the Tiger's life both on and off the course. Totally revised and updated, Raising the Bar includes Tiger's latest victories—including his historic 2001 Masters victory that completed the Tiger slam—and provides intense insight into his amazing career.
Brother Hood
by Janet McDonaldFrom the winner of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award, this provocative story about a young man straddling two very different worlds unfolds against a backdrop of brotherhood and betrayal, friendship and loyalty, and captures the dilemma of those who would carve out a unique destiny for themselves. Nate Whitely's life at a prestigious prep school in upstate New York takes him far from his Harlem home but not so far as to sever the strong bond he has to his neighborhood. Like his prep school friends, Nate is doing well academically and has his sights set on college. But complications from one life intrude into the other. His childhood friend Hustle won't give up his street-smart ways and doesn't want Nate to either. Nate's older brother, Eli, just can't seem to keep things together and is headed for major trouble. Will Nate be able to sustain these powerful ties without jeopardizing all that he's achieved?
Conversations in Tusculum: A Play
by Richard NelsonA riveting new work about power—and the abuse of power— in ancient Rome that has startling resonance with our age, Conversations in Tusculum reimagines the intense interaction among Brutus, Cassius, and Cicero leading up to the assassination of Julius Caesar, the leader they had once followed into battle but whom they have come to despise. Passionate in their beliefs but torn by their sense of loyalty, they struggle to continue believing in him despite their fear that his actions may pose great dangers to the nation. Conversations in Tusculum had its world premiere at the Public Theater in New York City in March 2008."Nelson…is a master of the quiet detail, of the oblique rhythm that transforms emotional diffidence into fascinating character."--Newsday
Midnight Crossing: A Mystery (Josie Gray Mysteries)
by Tricia FieldsPolice Chief Josie Gray wakes in the middle of the night, sure that she’s heard a car slowly passing by her remote homestead. When she goes outside to check, she discovers a woman, mute with shock and terror, hiding on her porch. And when she explores the field nearby, she comes across the body of another young woman, shot and killed.Located on the border of Texas and Mexico, the small town of Artemis has become a way station for the coyotes who ferry immigrants across the Rio Grande. But they usually keep moving north, to cities where they can blend into the crowd and pass by unnoticed. Why would these women stick around in Artemis?As Josie investigates the murder and tries to learn the identity of her uninvited houseguest, she discovers that not everyone in town has stayed out of the trafficking business, and someone may play a bigger role than she ever expected.The fifth book in Tricia Fields’s Hillerman Prize–winning series, Midnight Crossing captures the raw natural beauty of West Texas and the tough, independent people who choose to live at the very edge of the country.
Love & Death in Burgundy (The French Village Mysteries)
by Susan C. SheaFrom critically acclaimed author, Susan C. Shea, comes Love & Death in Burgundy, an atmospheric mystery novel filled with good Chablis, french cheese, and, of course, murder.After three years of living in the small town of Reigny-sur-Canne, all Katherine Goff really wants is to be accepted by her neighbors into their little community. But as an American expat living in the proud region of Burgundy, that’s no easy task. When the elderly Frenchman who lives in the village chateau is found dead at the bottom of a staircase, the town is turned into a hot bed of gossip and suspicion, and Katherine suddenly finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into the small town’s secrets. A motherless teenager, a malicious French widow, a brash music producer, and a would-be Agatha Christie are among those caught up in a storm that threatens to turn Katherine’s quiet life upside down. As more and more of the villagers' secrets are brought to light, Katherine must try to figure out who, if anyone, in the town she can trust, and which one of her neighbors just might be a killer.
Confessions of a Werewolf Supermodel
by Ronda ThompsonSupermodel Lou Kipinski seems to have it all. But beauty is only skin deep—and sometimes Lou's porcelain complexion can get a bit hairy. The only thing worse than a furry fashion faux-pas? Fangs in her million-dollar smile. That's what happened six months ago, when Lou had her first outbreak. But now that she's at the height of her career she absolutely must find a cure…So what's a single werewolf gotta do? Then a sexy detective comes knocking on her door. Two women who bear an eerie resemblance to Lou have been killed—something with teeth and claws tore them apart. Is it a coincidence that the grisly murders have taken place during the same time as Lou's own outbreaks? With a killer at her heels and another outbreak just a concealer-wand's distance away, Lou is soon in a race to discover truths about her own murky past. And before it's all over she may be forced to show the world that her bark is nothing compared to her bite…
Here Come the Regulars: How to Run a Record Label on a Shoestring Budget
by Ian AndersonIan Anderson started recording music when he was thirteen and launched his own successful label, Afternoon Records, in 2003, when he was just eighteen. Now this wunderkind of the indie music scene has written the ultimate guide for all those aspiring to a career in the record industry.Here Come the Regulars covers territory ranging from a label's image to its budget, focusing on the importance of blogging culture and how to use new media like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and iTunes to the best advantage. Aside from its essential advice—including a truthful account of the role of attorneys, contracts, and record deals—this accessible guide also contains key practical information ranging from sample legal agreements and press releases to actual figures illustrating how much money to spend on what (promotion, tour expenses, even T-shirts), all specifically geared toward the young upstart with very little in the bank.As the front man for the indie-pop band One for the Team and the editor of the music blog MFR, Anderson demonstrates how an energetic and persevering small label can thrive in an era of big box stores and homogenized radio stations. Showing how to start with $500 and an office that's the size of your bedroom closet because it is your bedroom closet, Here Come the Regulars will become the dog-eared, underlined bible on your nightstand. C
The Green Revolution: A Mystery Set at the University of Notre Dame (Roger and Philip Knight Mysteries)
by Ralph McInernyAccustomed to working together, Roger and his P.I. brother Philip will have to go their separate ways in Ralph McInerny's delightful The Green Revolution to unravel a campus-wide conspiracy and put the Irish back on top.Any year when the Fighting Irish don't go undefeated is a disappointment, but to turn in a losing football season is unheard of. This year the faithful are refusing to admit defeat even as the losses start to pile up. With the students in a funk and the alumni in an uproar, something must be done, or more precisely, somebody has to go. Since they can't expel the team, they'll have to settle for firing the multimillion-dollar head coach---but will a new coach satisfy everyone?There are some---namely faculty members with a distaste for university athletics---who see this as their chance to refocus the school on academics. When the battle between Notre Dame's academic and athletic traditions turns deadly, however, Roger Knight, professor of Catholic Studies, becomes a marked man.
Gentleman Rogue
by Matt BraunOld Texas would give way to new-- but not without a fight...They called it Hell's Half Acre: a violent sinkhole of dance halls and brothels, gaming dives and busthead saloons. To some citizens of Fort Worth, the only hope for Hell's Half Acre was to reform it. To others, it was a gold mine. And for one man, a shootist and gambler named Luke Short, it was a place to make a stand. Short wants to run an honest game with straight odds and build a future in Fort Worth. But plenty of people want to see him stone-cold dead. Now Short has no choice but to stake his claim, from behind the barrel of a loaded gun...
Ashes for Breakfast: Selected Poems
by Durs GrünbeinThe first English translation of Germany's leading contemporary poet....what is the whole surreal jokeshopof terrors compared to theinfinitely chance littletricks of a poem.--from "MonoLogical Poem #1"Born in Dresden in 1962, Durs Grünbein is the most significant and successful poet to emerge from the former East Germany, a place where, he wrote, "the best refuge was a closed mouth." In unsettling, often funny, sometimes savage lines whose vivid images reflect his deep love for and connection with the visual arts, Grunbein is reinventing German poetry and taking on the most pressing moral concerns of his generation. Brilliantly edited and translated by the English poet Michael Hofmann, Ashes for Breakfast expertly introduces Germany's most highly acclaimed contemporary poet to American readers.
The Four Stages of Cruelty: A Novel
by Keith HollihanDitmarsh Penitentiary holds many secrets within its walls. A maximum-security prison, it contains every breed of hatred, self-destruction, greed, and regret. Its inmates aren't the only ones who grapple with these emotions. Under constant threat yet given absolute authority, the guards routinely cross the divide between law enforcement and criminality.Corrections Officer Kali Williams takes pains to avoid the complicated traps of inmates and guards alike. Then a young inmate named Joshua comes to her for help. He claims that another prisoner has drawn an elaborate comic book, which holds a guide to the illicit underworld of Ditmarsh. The struggle to obtain the information encoded in its pages has been the cause of ever-increasing violence throughout the prison.At first Kali can't take Joshua seriously. But soon afterward, the artist-inmate disappears completely. As she retraces his steps, she enters a labyrinthine world inside the prison with unexpected connections to the outside world. Along the way, she uncovers the most bewildering secret of all ...Keith Hollihan's The Four Stages of Cruelty is a story of the mystery of human compassion, the twisted forms it can take, and the violence and redemption it makes possible.
Half Gods: Stories
by Akil KumarasamyA startlingly beautiful debut, Half Gods brings together the exiled, the disappeared, the seekers. Following the fractured origins and destines of two brothers named after demigods from the ancient epic the Mahabharata, we meet a family struggling with the reverberations of the past in their lives. These ten interlinked stories redraw the map of our world in surprising ways: following an act of violence, a baby girl is renamed after a Hindu goddess but raised as a Muslim; a lonely butcher from Angola finds solace in a family of refugees in New Jersey; a gentle entomologist, in Sri Lanka, discovers unexpected reserves of courage while searching for his missing son.By turns heartbreaking and fiercely inventive, Half Gods reveals with sharp clarity the ways that parents, children, and friends act as unknowing mirrors to each other, revealing in their all-too human weaknesses, hopes, and sorrows a connection to the divine.
The Miracle Strip (Sierra Lavotini Mysteries)
by Nancy BartholomewA Sexy Stripper-Sleuth Bares It All to Catch a Cold-Blooded Killer in The Miracle Strip by Nancy BartholomewThe whip-smart Sierra Lavotini is the hottest act on Panama City's strip scene. She's the headliner at the bare-all bar, the Tiffany Club. Besides her bodacious business, Sierra's life is fairly simple. And that's the way she likes it. But when a good friend, Denise, seeks her help, Sierra's life takes a murderous turn. Seems Denise's furry friend Arlo has just been "dognapped." From the pricey ransom note, Sierra figures there's much more to this case than meets the eye. And her hunch proves correct when a quick trip to Denise's apartment reveals a fresh corpse. Sierra can't shake the feeling that her friend isn't telling her the whole story--especially after Denise turns up missing and the body count continues to rise. Determined to reveal the naked truth, Sierra tackles this steamy caper head on, digging in her stiletto heels until the dangerous job is done.
Queen of Hearts
by Martha BrooksOn the prairies of Canada during World War II, a girl and her two young siblings begin a war of their own. Stricken with tuberculosis, they are admitted to a nearby sanatorium. Teenager Marie Claire is headstrong, angry, and full of stubborn pride. In a new strange land of TB exiles she must "chase the cure," seek privacy where there is none, and witness the slow wasting decline of others. But in this moving novel about fighting a way back to normal life, it is the thing that sets back Marie Claire the most—the demise of her little brother—that also connects her with the person who will be instrumental in helping her recover.
Color and Money: How Rich White Kids Are Winning the War over College Affirmative Action
by Peter SchmidtWhat is the real story behind the fight over affirmative action at colleges? Veteran journalist Peter Schmidt exposes truths that will outrage readers and forever transform the debate. He reveals how:* colleges use affirmative action to mask how much they cater to the country club crowd and to solicit support from the big corporations they steer minority students toward;* conservatives have used opposition to affirmative action to advance a broader agenda that includes gutting government programs that help level the playing field;* selective colleges reward families for shielding their children from contact with other races and classes and help perpetuate societal discrimination by favoring applicants from expensive private schools or public schools in exclusive communities;* racial tensions like those witnessed at Duke University, the University of Michigan, and scores of other campuses in recent decades are a direct result of college admissions policies;* affirmative-action preferences for women and minorities may have survived recent court challenges, but in much of the nation they are unlikely to survive the forces of democracy; and* regardless of what happens with affirmative action, African Americans are going to be denied equal access to colleges for many decades to come unless American society undergoes revolutionary change.This is a startling, brave, and thoroughly researched book that will ignite a national debate on class and education for years to come.
The Accountant's Guide to the Universe: Heaven and Hell by the Numbers
by Craig HoveyThey said it couldn't be done, but Craig Hovey's The Accountant's Guide to the Universe is the first entertaining book on accounting written for a general audience. The book opens with a wild premise: Heaven and Hell have been outsourced to a giant company in a distant galaxy and they are now in charge of determining who goes where after death. The entire universe is scoured for an objective system that can be adapted to the task, and it is found, in the form of accounting, in the least civilized backwater of the universe, Earth!The book is also a morality tale. It demonstrates how financial scandals (a la Bernie Madoff and many others) can be pulled off with "creative accounting," and how much a person adds or subtracts from the universe by their actions. Written for anybody who has taken an accounting class, practices it for a living, or is simply interested in seeing how a system designed to record finances can also be used to judge the entire universe will be enlightened by The Accountant's Guide to the Universe.
The Nocilla Trilogy: Nocilla Dream, Nocilla Experience, Nocilla Lab (The Nocilla Trilogy)
by Agustín Fernández MalloA landmark in contemporary Spanish literature, Agustin Fernandez Mallo’s Nocilla Trilogy—Nocilla Dream, Nocilla Lab, and Nocilla Experience—presents multiple narratives of people and places that reflect America and the world in the digital age of the twenty-first century.In the middle of the Nevada desert stands a solitary poplar tree covered in hundreds of pairs of shoes. Farther along Route 50, a lonely prostitute falls in love with a collector of found photographs. In Las Vegas, an Argentine man builds a peculiar monument to Jorge Luis Borges. On the run from the authorities, Kenny takes up permanent residence in the legal non-place of Singapore International Airport, while the novelists Enrique Vila-Matas and Agustín Fernández Mallo encounter each other on an oil rig.These are just a few of the narrative strands that make up Fernández Mallo’s Nocilla Trilogy—Nocilla Dream, Nocilla Experience, and Nocilla Lab. Greeted as a landmark in contemporary Spanish literature, the entire trilogy has not been available in English until now.“By juxtaposing fiction with non-fiction . . . the author has created a hybrid genre that mirrors our networked lives, allowing us to inhabit its interstitial spaces. A physician as well as an artist, Fernández Mallo can spot a mermaid’s tail in a neutron monitor; estrange theorems into pure poetry.” —Andrew Gallix, TheIndependent“An encyclopedia, a survey, a deranged anthropology: Nocilla Dream is just the coldhearted poetics that might see America for what it really is. There is something deeply strange and finally unknowable about this book, in the very best way.” —Ben Marcus, author of The Flame Alphabet