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More Shapes Than One: A Book of Stories
by Fred ChappellThese thirteen tales are populated by an assortment of fictional as well as real characters, all of them vividly sketched and true-to-life: the botanist Linnaeus, the composer Offenbach, the poet Hart Crane, the visionary horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, a southern sheriff, a dealer in rare books, a country singer, an old maid (and her suitor), and a mathematician. Whether these stories are deemed disquieting, comic, prophetic, or tall in the telling, they show us worlds where the truth reveals itself in many shapes. Throughout the writings comprising More Shapes Than One, Fred Chappell's storytelling magic transforms the commonplace.
The Vegan Way: 21 Days to a Happier, Healthier Plant-Based Lifestyle That Will Transform Your Home, Your Diet, and You
by Jackie Day“Writing in a playful and upbeat fashion, Day guides her readers through a day-by-day approach to living vegan… For those interested in becoming acquainted with “the vegan way,” this book marvelously succeeds.” – Publishers Weekly"I only wish I had had this book decades ago!" - Moby"This goes well beyond diet ... This book is a comprehensive guide to anyone looking to switch to a plant-based life." - Booklist"The Vegan Way is like having a friendly non-judgmental vegan friend by your side to help you every step of the way as you blossom into a happier, healthier being. So inspiring!" - Pamela AndersonThe VeganWay is a book filled with everything Jackie Day has learned as a happy vegan, a health educator, and author of the popular vegan blog, My Vegan Journal. A lifestyle guide that’s a real game-changer, The Vegan Way is for those who are intimidated by going vegan overnight, but don’t want the transition to stretch out for months or even years. In a 21 day plan that emphasizes three core reasons for going vegan—being as healthy as you can be, being compassionate to animals, and respecting our planet—Jackie provides inspiration along with a specific goal to achieve with all of the support you need to accomplish it. It might be something as simple as switching out your coffee creamer for vanilla almond milk or kicking the cheese habit. Readers will learn where to dine and what to order when eating out, the most vegan-friendly places to visit, how to avoid clothing made from animals, and how to decipher those pesky ingredients lists. And throughout, Jackie will be providing glimpses into the finer points of vegan living, giving readers something to aspire to as they get past Vegan 101. Readers will also find a handful of easy and delicious recipes sprinkled throughout. The Vegan Way is a road map that puts positive thoughts about health, the environment, and animals into action, transforming your life into a vibrant, healthy, and compassionate one.
The Bit Between My Teeth: A Literary Chronicle of 1950–1965
by Edmund WilsonThe Bit Between My Teeth: A Literary Chronicle of 1950-1965 collects Edmund Wilson's masterful essays written during a fifteen year span.Originally published in leading periodicals like the New Republic, the New York Review of Books, and the New Yorker, this collection features literary criticism, essays, and reviews by Wilson on F. Scott Fitzgerald, H.L. Mencken, Bernard Shaw, Max Beerbohm, James Branch Cabell, Marquis de Sade, and more.
This Gorgeous Game
by Donna FreitasA CHILLING NOVEL ABOUT THE ISOLATION OF BEING STALKED AND THE ABUSE OF POWER.Olivia Peters is over the moon when her literary idol, the celebrated novelist and muchadored local priest Mark D. Brendan, offers to become her personal writing mentor. But when Father Mark's enthusiasm for Olivia's prose develops into something more, Olivia's emotions quickly shift from wonder to confusion to despair. Exactly what game is Father Mark playing, and how on earth can she get out of it? This remarkable novel about overcoming the isolation that stems from victimization is powerful, luminous, and impossible to put down.A 2010 Chicago Public Library Best of the BestA 2011 ALA Best Book for Young AdultsA 2011 CCBC Choice
I Love My Smith & Wesson: A Novel (Rawhead Series)
by David Bowker"If the varying tones of gritty crime procedural, black comedy and gothic grand guignol sometimes clash, readers (those with strong stomachs, anyway) will be having too much fun to care." - Publishers WeeklyManchester, England. Death stalks these streets in the form of a hired killer named Rawhead--a shadowy yet powerful figure desperate to control a ruthless mob family called The Priesthood. He will stop at nothing to invade their inner sanctum.Author Billy Dye has finally found success after years of struggle. But now Rawhead, his childhood friend turned maniacal assassin, has reentered his life and involved him in a plot to take over The Priesthood and wrest control of the Manchester underworld. Nobody is safe in this action-packed, violent, and often hilarious crime novel.David Bowker is the new voice of British crime and the most original author to burst on the scene in years.
Skin Game: A Cutter's Memoir
by Caroline Kettlewell"There was very fine, an elegant pain, hardly a pain at all, like the swift and fleeting burn of a drop of hot candle wax...Then the blood welled up and began to distort the pure, stark edges of my delicately wrought wound."The chaos in my head spun itself into a silk of silence. I had distilled myself to the immediacy of hand, blade, blood, flesh." There are an estimated two to three million "cutters" in America, but experts warn that, as with anorexia, this could be just the tip of the iceberg of those affected by this little-known disorder. Cutting has only just begun to enter public consciousness as a dangerous affliction that tends to take hold of adolescent girls and can last, hidden and untreated, well into adulthood.Caroline Kettlewell is an intelligent woman with a promising career and a family. She is also a former cutter, and the first person to tell her own story about living with and overcoming the disorder. She grew up on the campus of a boys' boarding school where her father taught. As she entered adolescence, the combination of a family where frank discussion was avoided and life in what seemed like a fishbowl, where she and her sister were practically the only girls the students ever saw, became unbearable for Caroline. She discovered that the only way to find relief from overpowering feelings of self-consciousness, discomfort, and alienation was to physically hurt herself. She began cutting her arms and legs in the seventh grade, and continued into her twenties.Why would a rational person resort to such extreme measures? How did she recognize and overcome her problem? In a memoir startling for its honesty, humor, and poignancy, Caroline Kettlewell offers a clear-eyed account of her own struggle to survive this debilitating affliction.
Last Last Chance: A Novel
by Fiona MaazelLast Last Chance, Fiona Maazel's first novel, is one of the most distinctive debuts of recent years: a rollicking comic tale about (in no particular order) plague, narcotics recovery, and reincarnation.A lethal strain of virus vanishes from a lab in Washington, D.C., unleashing an epidemic—and the world thinks Lucy Clark's dead father is to blame. The plague may be the least of Lucy's problems. There's her mother, Isifrid, a peddler of high-end hatwear who's also a crackhead and pagan theologist. There's her twelve-year-old half sister, Hannah, obsessed with disease and Christian fundamentalism; and Lucy's lover, Stanley, who's hell-bent on finding a womb for his dead wife's frozen eggs. Lastly, there's her grandmother Agneth, who believes in reincarnation (and who turns out to be right). And then there is Lucy herself, whose wise, warped approach to life makes her an ideal guide to love among the ruins. Romping across the country, from Southern California to the Texas desert to rural Pennsylvania and New York City, Lucy tries to surmount her drug addiction and to keep her family intact—and tells us, uproariously, all about it.Last Last Chance is a novel about survival and recovery, opportunity and despair, and, finally, love and faith in an age of anxiety. It introduces Maazel as a new writer of phenomenal gifts.
Rwanda Means the Universe: A Native's Memoir of Blood and Bloodlines
by Jack Kramer Louise MushikiwaboMushikiwabo is a Rwandan working as a translator in Washington when she learns that most of her family back home has been killed in a conspiracy meticulously planned by the state. First comes shock, then aftershock, three months of it, during which her worst fears are confirmed: The same state apparatus has duped millions of Rwandans into butchering nearly a million of their neighbors.Years earlier, her brother Lando wrote her a letter she never got until now. Urged on by it, she rummages into their farm childhood, and into family corners alternately dark, loving, and humorous. She searches for stray mementos of the lost, then for their roots. What she finds is that and more---hints, roots, of the 1994 crime that killed her family. Her narrative takes the reader on a journey from the days the world and Rwanda discovered each other back to colonial period when pseudoscientific ideas about race put the nation on a highway bound for the 1994 genocide. Seven years of full-time collaboration by two writers---and the faith of family and friends---went into this emotionally charged work. Rwanda Means the Universe is at once a celebration of the lives of the lost and homage to their past, but it's no comfortable tribute. It's an expression of dogged hope in the face of modern evil.
Shadow on the Mountain: Nancy Pfister, Dr. William Styler, and the Murder of Aspen's Golden Girl
by Stephen Singular Joyce SingularNancy Pfister, heir to Buttermilk Mountain, the world-renowned site of the Winter X Games, was Aspen royalty, its ambassador to the world. She lived among the rich and famous: she partied with Hunter S. Thompson, dated Jack Nicholson, had a joint baby shower with Goldie Hawn, and globetrotted with Angelica Houston. She was also a philanthropist, admired for her generosity. But behind the warm façade, she could be selfish, manipulative, and careless. Pfister enjoyed bragging about her wealth and celebrity connections, but those closest to her, like Kathy Carpenter, Pfister's personal assistant, drinking companion, and on one occasion lover, knew better.In 2013, after a long fall from grace, Dr. William Styler and his wife, Nancy, relocated to Aspen to reinvent themselves. They'd lived the high life before a misguided lawsuit left them near poverty, and Nancy Pfister was their answered prayer. She took them in, gave them a place to live, and allowed them to launch their new spa business. Everything seemed perfect until Pfister turned on them, making increasingly irrational demands and threatening to throw them out on the street. When Nancy was found beaten to death in her own home, the Stylers and Carpenter were all under suspicion for the gruesome murder. But in this close-knit, wealthytown set on keeping its reputation and secrets safe from the public eye, the police struggled to solve the mystery of what really happened.
The Green Coffee Bean Quick Weight Loss Diet: Turbo Charge Your Weight Loss . . . and Eat What You love
by Leslie PepperTHE SCIENTIFIC WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT, INCREASE ENERGY AND GET HEALTHY… ALL WITHOUT FEELING DEPRIVEDAre you sick of ineffective yo-yo dieting – of going hungry, then gaining the weight back as soon as the diet ends? Are you looking for a way to lose those pounds before swimsuit season – and keep them off? Research shows that, with the help of a powerful ingredient called chlorogenic acid, pure green coffee extract helps people lose weight quickly and manage blood sugar…with no adverse side effects and without eating fewer calories. This may sound amazing, but it's true!From renowned scientists to thousands of everyday success stories, green coffee extract is sweeping the nation – and being called a weight-loss miracle. NOW, for the first time, this easy-to-follow diet program offers much-needed guidance on how to use green coffee to shed pounds within weeks, and keep the pounds off for sustainable good health. In this book, learn how to turbo-charge your weight loss with:· SPECIFIC GUIDELINES FOR HOW TO SELECT AND USE GREEN COFFEE PRODUCTS· 45 DELICIOUS, ANTIOXIDANT-RICH RECIPES· 3 WEEKS OF TEMPTING MEAL PLANS· INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS STORIES· FUN, LOW-IMPACT EXERCISE TIPSThe Green Coffee Bean Quick Weight Loss Diet proves that trimming down and staying healthy can be fun and painless. Get ready to eat what you love, stop worrying, and start your journey to a happier, more satisfied you.
Finding Perfect
by Elly SwartzTo twelve-year-old Molly Nathans, perfect is:—The number four—The tip of a newly sharpened No. 2 pencil—A crisp white pad of paper —Her neatly aligned glass animal figurinesWhat’s not perfect is Molly’s mother leaving the family to take a faraway job with the promise to return in one year. Molly knows that promises are sometimes broken, so she hatches a plan to bring her mother home: Win the Lakeville Middle School Poetry Slam Contest. The winner is honored at a fancy banquet with white tablecloths. Molly is sure her mother would never miss that. Right…? But as time passes, writing and reciting slam poetry become harder. Actually, everything becomes harder as new habits appear, and counting, cleaning, and organizing are not enough to keep Molly's world from spinning out of control. In this fresh-voiced debut novel, one girl learns there is no such thing as perfect.
Fattitudes: Beat Self-Defeat and Win Your War with Weight
by Jeffrey R. Wilbert Norean K. WilbertWhat's keeping you from slimming down? It may be Fattitudes! Fattitudes are the thoughts and feelings that sabotage your weight--loss goals. Dr. Jeffrey R. Wilbert and his wife Norean, who have had personal and professional experience fighting the war against fattitudes, tell you how to stop self-sabotage.Learn how to: Discover the feelings, thoughts, and unresolved issues that make up your fattitudes.Invent new modes of thinking and feeling.Extinguish your old, self-defeating patterns.Transform your new, fattitude-free way of thinking into healthy living.If you reach for the Ben and Jerry's when you're feeling blue, feel unable to stop eating, or find yourself dieting and failing, again and again, Fattitudes provides an easy-to-follow, step-by-step new "D.I.E.T." plan. With compassion and advice that really works, it enables you to transform both your body and mind, as you witness yourself becoming thinner, healthier, and more in control--of your eating, and your life.
The Morning Sickness Companion
by Elizabeth KaledinIt's frustrating and a nuisance--and it can be a major obstacle to experiencing the joy of pregnancy. But morning sickness doesn't always strike in the morning, and for many women it doesn't even strike--it's an ever-present part of their pregnancy, with symptoms ranging from mild nausea and exhaustion to crippling depression and physical illness.We all know the standard suggestions--crackers and tea, Jell-O and ginger ale--but when they don't seem like enough, what can women really do to manage their symptoms and recover the happiness their pregnancy should bring? As debilitating as morning sickness is, we don't hear much about it. But finally, just when it seems as though there's nothing out there, women have somewhere to turn. Elizabeth Kaledin's The Morning Sickness Companion is a book by and for women suffering morning sickness. Morning sickness is a reality of pregnancy--many women are affected--and this book is dedicated to them. It fills a major void in pregnancy literature, providing a brief history of morning sickness, all the latest scientific thinking, research on its emotional toll, and lots of reassuring tips and advice from other women about what they ate, how sick they really were, sources of relief, and how to survive, since the fact is it is nearly inevitable. Engaging, warm, often funny, and always informative, The Morning Sickness Companion offers women who are suffering the wisdom and comfort they really need.
When the Stars Go Blue: A Novel
by Caridad FerrerWinner of an International Latino Book Award, When the Stars Go Blue is a contemporary interpretation of Bizet's Carmen in which the fiery gypsy is reinvented as a modern-day dancer, torn between the attentions of an intense, disciplined music prodigy and a flamboyant soccer player.Dance is Soledad Reyes's life. About to graduate from Miami's Biscayne High School for the Performing Arts, she plans on spending her last summer at home teaching in a dance studio, saving money, and eventually auditioning for dance companies. That is, until fate intervenes in the form of fellow student Jonathan Crandall who has what sounds like an outrageous proposition: Forget teaching. Why not spend the summer performing in the intense environment of the competitive drum and bugle corps? The corps is going to be performing Carmen, and the opportunity to portray the character of the sultry gypsy proves too tempting for Soledad to pass up, as well as the opportunity to spend more time with Jonathan, who intrigues her in a way no boy ever has before. But in an uncanny echo of the story they perform every evening, an unexpected competitor for Soledad's affections appears: Taz, a member of an all-star Spanish soccer team. One explosive encounter later Soledad finds not only her relationship with Jonathan threatened, but her entire future as a professional dancer.
We Make Beer: Inside the Spirit and Artistry of America's Craft Brewers
by Sean LewisAn eye-opening journey into craft beer–making in America, and what you can find in the quest to brew the perfect pintSean Lewis was living in Boston when he first set foot inside the Blue Hills Brewery. He was writing for BeerAdvocate magazine about America's craft brewers, and the then-fledgling Blue Hills was his first assignment. Lewis was immediately struck by the spirit of the brewers he met there. That visit would lead him first to an intensive study of beer-brewing, and later to a nation-spanning journey into the heart—and the art—of American beer making.What Lewis found along the way was a group of like-minded craftsmen—creators who weren't afraid to speak their minds, who saw their competitors as cherished friends. A group who takes sheer joy in their work, and who seeks the same kind of balance in their lives as they do in the barrels they brew. He shared pints with pioneering upstarts like Paul and Kim Kavulak of Nebraska Brewing Company, and talked shop with craft beer stalwarts like Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada and bombastic innovators like Greg Koch (the "Arrogant Bastard" behind Stone Brewing Co.). He found, in them and others, a community that put its soul into its work, who sees beer-making as an extension of themselves.We Make Beer is not just a celebration of American brewing, but of the spirit that binds brewers together. It's about what you can discover in yourself when you put your hands and your heart into crafting the perfect pint.
Little Girls Can Be Mean: Four Steps to Bully-Proof Girls in the Early Grades
by Michelle Anthony Reyna LindertWorried about mean girls? Help your daughter respond and react to bullying where it starts---in elementary schoolAs experts in developmental psychology and each a mother of three, Dr. Michelle Anthony and Dr. Reyna Lindert began noticing an alarming pattern of social struggle among girls as young as five, including their own daughters. In today's world, it is likely that your daughter has been faced with bullying and friendship issues, too---and perhaps you're at a loss for how to guide her through these situations effectively. Little Girls Can Be Mean is the first book to tackle the unique social struggles of elementary-aged girls, giving you the tools you need to help your daughter become stronger, happier, and better able to enjoy her friendships at school and beyond. Dr. Anthony and Dr. Lindert offer an easy-to-follow, 4-step plan to help you become a problem-solving partner with your child, including tips and insights that girls can use on their own to confront social difficulties in an empowered way. Whether your daughter is just starting grade school or is already on her way to junior high, you'll learn how to:OBSERVE the social situation with new eyesCONNECT with your child in a new wayGUIDE your child with simple, compassionate strategiesSUPPORT your daughter to act more independently to face the social issueBy focusing squarely on the issues and needs of girls in the years before adolescence, Little Girls Can Be Mean is the essential, go-to guide for any parent or educator of girls in grades K-6.
The Global Brand: How to Create and Develop Lasting Brand Value in the World Market
by Nigel HollisA top executive at one of the world's leading marketing firms analyzes the familiarity and strength of brands and establishes five steps towards increasing brand strength in a globalized worldRapid advances in modern technology present companies with quickly expanding marketing opportunities, but they also create an over-saturated business landscape that both helps and hurts brands. The Global Brand is a thorough investigation of brand strength in the accelerated modern business world.Nigel Hollis draws on his experience at Millward Brown to present a simple formula for determining brand strength based on two axes, Presence (or familiarity) and Voltage (or marketing appeal), to illustrate the market value and performance of brands. He analyzes the five steps of customer commitment to a strong brand--Presence, Relevance, Performance, Advantage, and Bonding. Finally, Hollis emphasizes human nature as a set of constant core values that all brands should appeal to, and analyzes the future of brand-building as a profitable investment.“In The Global Brand, Nigel Hollis not only corrects some of the misconceptions of the past but offers a glimpse of the future that is both perceptive and grounded in good business sense. Those who take the time to properly digest this book will save their companies a lot of money.” —Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer, WPP
I'm Going to College—Not You!: Surviving the College Search with Your Child
by Jennifer DelahuntyAcceptance by a top college is more than a gold star on a high school graduate's forehead today. It has morphed into the ultimate "good parenting" stamp of approval--the better the bumper sticker, the better the parent, right? Parents of juniors and seniors in high school fret over SAT scores and essays, obsessed with getting their kids into the right college, while their children push for independence. I'm Going to College---Not You! is a resource for parents, written by parents who've been in their shoes. Kenyon College dean Jennifer Delahunty shares her unique perspective (and her daughter's) on one of the toughest periods of parenting, and has assembled a top-notch group of writers that includes best-selling authors, college professors and admissions directors, and journalists. Their experiences with the difficult balancing act between control freak and resource answer questions like:--how can a parent be less of a "helicopter" (hovering) and more of a "booster rocket" (uplifting)?--what do you do when your child wants to put off college to become a rock star? and--how will you keep from wanting to kill each other?Contributors include: Jane Hamilton David LattNeal Pollack Joe QueenanAnne Roark Debra Shaver Anna Quindlen Ellen Waterston
Shadows of Glass (Ashes of Twilight Trilogy)
by Kassy TaylerWren's world has changed. The thing that she fought for, escaping the dome has come to fruition, but it's not the paradise she thought it would be. Most of the shiners have died, and according to James, she is to blame for many of the deaths, a burden which sits heavy on her shoulders. Still some have survived and Wren is determined to keep them safe as they fight to establish a home outside while hiding from the rovers who have weapons that can kill from far away. But as long as she has Pace she knows everything will be fine. Still Wren wonders, as she sees the smoke that continually pours forth from the dome, how did her friends inside fare? Will they ever find out if Lucy, David, Jill and Harry, along with Pace's mother survive the explosions?Meanwhile, someone else has also seen the smoke. A band of explorers from across the sea arrive in an airship, curious about the dome, and offering help to those who survive. When Wren meets the handsome Levi Addison, she suddenly questions her love for Pace as Levi offers to show her the world from his airship. Does she really love Pace? Or was it just the circumstances that made her think she did? Meanwhile, word arrives from inside via Pip, and Wren is forced to go back inside the dome, a thing that terrifies her more than anything else, to save her friends. Once she's back inside will she be able to escape again? Kassy Tayler's Shadows of Glass is a whirlwind of adventure, romance, conspiracy and the struggle to stay alive in a dystopian world where nothing is as it seems.
Fast Greens: A Novel
by Turk PipkinIn a timeless story of golf in the Kingdom of Texas, a young caddie gets in a deadly grudge match among a world of liars, cheats, and hustlers. Searching for the meaning of golf and life---and for the father he's never had---thirteen-year-old Billie Hemphill will witness magic, miracles, redemption, and revenge. Too true to be fiction, and too wonderful to be true, Turk Pipkin's FAST GREENS is a must-read for every golfer, or anyone who loves a great Texas tale.
Codes, Precepts, Biases, and Taboos: Poems, 1973–1993
by Lawrence JosephThe first three books by the author of Into ItCodes, Precepts, Biases, and Taboos brings together the poems from Lawrence Joseph's first three books of poetry: Shouting at No One, Curriculum Vitae, and Before Our Eyes. Now in one volume, the poems from these three books can be seen as the work of one of American poetry's most original and challenging poets.
The Grrl Genius Guide to Sex (with Other People): A Self-Help Novel
by Cathryn MichonWho better to advise you on sex and relationships than a woman who has consistently failed at both? In this laugh out loud funny "self-help novel", self proclaimed genius and author Cathryn Michon provides a how not to guide for anyone tackling the daunting task of finding romance in today's world (or at the local fire station.)Chock full of instructive relationship tips-such as the Pros and "Cons" of dating a man in prison-The Grrl Genius Guide to Sex (With Other People) is hilarious and right on the money both as an instructional guide and an endearingly romantic story about a woman and her four best friends who form The Grrl Genius Club. Armed with the information from Cathryn's Wild Sexual Animal Kingdom research and her "Love is Important but Chocolate is Essential" Chocolate Fun Facts, her posse of Grrl Geniuses struggle with singlehood, married life, sexual preferences, widowhood, and friendship. Cathryn's journey veers from a "nails-on-chalkboard-scratchingly-awful" divorce and the botched kidnapping of her own dog, to pretending to be a lesbian, seeing her old lingerie sold on her old front lawn by her ex-husband's girlfriend, losing her job, and a tragic industrial accident-level bikini wax. And through everything, Cathryn searches for the answer to the most important relationship question of all: why are all the best men gay?If you've ever been tempted to have sex with another person, this is an essential read. If you've ever felt inadequate to a task or a failure at love or in any way anything less than a genius and you've sunk so low that even a new pair of cute shoes won't help, Cathryn Michon can show you the way to relationship happiness-all you have to do is learn from her very funny mistakes. However badly you think you've done anything, Cathryn has done it even worse, and reveals lessons learned in the wryly witty and devastatingly honest style that has made her the favorite of aspiring geniuses everywhere!
How to Read a Novel: A User's Guide
by John Sutherland"Do we still know how to read a novel?" John Sutherland, Chairman of the 2005 Booker Prize Committee, asks. His disheartened answer is an unequivocal, "No." But Sutherland has not given up hope. With acerbic wit and intellect, he traces the history of what it used to mean to be well-read and tells readers what it still means today. Using this delightful book as a means to an end, he reminds readers how the delicate charms of fiction can be at once wonderful and inspired and infuriating. On one level this is a book about novels: how they work, what they're about, what makes them good or bad, and how to talk about them. At a deeper level, this is a book in which one of the most intimate tête-à-têtes is described—one in which a reader meets a novel. Will a great love affair begin? Will the rendezvous end in disappointment? Who can say? In order for the relationship to take its appropriate course all the details must be clearly acknowledged and understood for their complexities: plot, point of view, character, style, pace, first and last sentences, and even beauty. Still, Sutherland knows a true understanding of fiction is more than a flirtation with text and style—it is a business. Taking his readers on a trip to the bookshop, he helps them judge a book by its cover based on design and color, wondering aloud what genre might be best, even going so far as to analyze one of the latest American bestsellers to further help the buying reader choose the novel that is right for him or her. In a book that is as wry and humorous as it is learned and opinionated, John Sutherland tells you everything you always wanted to know about how to read fiction better than you do now (but, were afraid to ask).
Grandmaster: A Novel
by David KlassFreshman Daniel Pratzer gets a chance to prove himself when the chess team invites him and his father to a weekend-long parent-child tournament. Daniel, thinking that his father is a novice, can't understand why his teammates want so badly for them to participate. Then he finds out the truth: as a teen, his father was one of the most promising young players in America, but the pressures of the game pushed him too far, and he had to give up chess to save his own life and sanity. Now, thirty years later, Mr. Pratzer returns to the game to face down an old competitor and the same dark demons that lurk in the corners of a mind stretched by the demands of the game. Daniel was looking for acceptance—but the secrets he uncovers about his father will force him to make some surprising moves himself, in Grandmaster by David Klass.
Love Bomb: A Novel
by Lisa ZeidnerAn inventive, mordantly funny novel about love, marriage, stalkers, and the indignities of parenthoodIn quaint Haddonfield, New Jersey, Tess is about to marry Gabe in her childhood home. Her mother, Helen, is in a panic about the guests, who include warring exes, crying babies, jealous girlfriends, and too many psychiatrists. But the most difficult guest was never on the list at all: a woman in a wedding dress and a gas mask, armed with a rifle, a bomb trigger strapped to her arm.Lisa Zeidner's audacious novel Love Bomb begins as a hostage drama and blossoms into a far-reaching tale about the infinite varieties of passion and heartbreak.Who has offended this nutcase, and how? Does she seek revenge against the twice-divorced philanderer? Or is her agenda political—against the army general? Or the polygamous Muslim from Mali? While the warm, wise Helen attempts to bond with the masked woman and control the hysteria, the hostages begin to untangle what connects them to one another, and to their captor. But not until the SWAT team arrives does "the terrorist of love" unveil her real motives . . .Critics have praised Lisa Zeidner's prose for its "unforced edginess and power"; her fiction "shines with humor, wisdom, and poignancy." In her most masterful novel yet, Zeidner gives us a tough yet tender social comedy, a romance with guts, a serious frolic written out of deep affection for all that it skewers.