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Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players
by Stefan FatsisStefan Fatsis, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and National Public Radio regular, recounts his remarkable rise through the ranks of elite Scrabble players while exploring the game's strange, potent hold over them—and him.Scrabble might truly be called America's game. More than two million sets are sold every year and at least thirty million American homes have one. But the game's most talented competitors inhabit a sphere far removed from the masses of "living room players." Theirs is a surprisingly diverse subculture whose stars include a vitamin-popping standup comic; a former bank teller whose intestinal troubles earn him the nickname "G.I. Joel"; a burly, unemployed African American from Baltimore's inner city; the three-time national champion who plays according to Zen principles; and Fatsis himself, who we see transformed from a curious reporter to a confirmed Scrabble nut.He begins by haunting the gritty corner of a Greenwich Village park where pickup Scrabble games can be found whenever weather permits. His curiosity soon morphs into compulsion, as he sets about memorizing thousands of obscure words and fills his evenings with solo Scrabble played on his living room floor. Before long he finds himself at tournaments socializing—and competing—with Scrabble's elite. But this book is about more than hardcore Scrabblers, for the game yields insights into realms as disparate as linguistics, psychology, and mathematics. Word Freak extends its reach even further, pondering the light Scrabble throws on such notions as brilliance, memory, competition, failure, and hope. It is a geography of obsession that celebrates the uncanny powers locked in all of us. This edition includes a new 2013 afterword by the author.
Whiteman: A Novel
by Tony D'SouzaIn an Ivory Coast village where Christians and Muslims are squaring off for war, against a backdrop of bloody conflict and vibrant African life, Jack Diaz—an American relief worker—and Mamadou, his village guardian, learn that hate knows no color and that true heroism waits where we least expect it. During lulls in the violence, Jack learns the cycles of Africa—of hunting in the rain forest, cultivating the yam, and navigating the nuances of the language; of witchcraft, storytelling, and chivalry. Despite the omnipresence of AIDS, he courts a stunning Peul girl, meets his neighbor&’s wife in the darkened forest, and desperately pursues the village flirt. Still, Jack spends many nights alone in his hut, longing for love in a place where his skin color excludes him. Brimming with dangerous passions and the pressures of life in a time of war, Whiteman is a stunning debut and a tale of desire, isolation, humor, action, and fear.
Israeli Soul: Easy, Essential, Delicious
by Steven Cook Michael SolomonovFor their first major book since the trailblazing Zahav, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook go straight to the food of the people—the great dishes that are the soul of Israeli cuisine. Usually served from tiny eateries, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, or market stalls, these specialties have passed from father to son or mother to daughter for generations. To find the best versions, the authors scoured bustling cities like Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa, and sleepy towns on mountaintops. They visited bakeries, juice carts, beaches, even weddings. Their finds include meals in the hand like falafel and pita; juicy, grilled and roasted spice-rubbed meats; stuffed vegetables; a wealth of chopped vegetable salads; a five-minute fluffy hummus with more than two dozen toppings; pastries, ice creams, and shakes. Solomonov has perfected and adapted every recipe for the home kitchen. Each chapter weaves history with contemporary portrayals of the food. Striking photographs capture all its flavor and vitality, while step-by-step how-tos and closeups of finished dishes make everything simple and accessible.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (Penguin Modern Classics Ser.)
by James Agee Walker EvansPulitzer Prize-winning author James Agee and renowned photgrapher Walker Evans's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is a landmark work of American photojournalism “renowned for its fusion of social conscience and artistic radicality” (The New York Times)In the summer of 1936, James Agee and Walker Evans set out on assignment for Fortune magazine to explore the daily lives of sharecroppers in the South. Their journey would prove an extraordinary collaboration and a watershed literary event when, in 1941, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was first published to enormous critical acclaim. This unsparing record of place, of the people who shaped the land and the rhythm of their lives, is intensely moving and unrelentingly honest, and today ??—?? recognized by the New York Public Library as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century ??—?? it stands as a poetic tract of its time. With an elegant design as well as a sixty-four-page photographic prologue featuring archival reproductions of Evans's classic images, this historic edition offers readers a window into a remarkable slice of American history.
White Apples And The Taste Of Stone: Selected Poems 1946-2006
by Donald HallThroughout his writing life Donald Hall has garnered numerous accolades and honors, culminating in 2006 with his appointment as poet laureate of the United States. White Apples and the Taste of Stone collects more than two hundred poems from across sixty years of Hall’s celebrated career, and includes poems recently published in The New Yorker, the American Poetry Review, and the New York Times. It is Hall’s first selected volume in fifteen years, and the first to include poems from his seminal bestseller Without. Those who have come to love Donald Hall's poetry will welcome this vital and important addition to his body of work. For the uninitiated it is a spectacular introduction to this critically acclaimed and admired poet.
The Cyberiad: Stories (Penguin Modern Classics Series)
by Stanislaw LemTrurl and Klaupacius are constructor robots who try to out-invent each other. They travel to the far corners of the cosmos to take on freelance problem-solving jobs, with dire consequences for their employers. “The most completely successful of his books... here Lem comes closest to inventing a real universe” (Boston Globe). Illustrations by Daniel Mr—z. Translated by Michael Kandel.
The Book Of Souls (Detective Inspector MacLean #2)
by James OswaldEach year for ten years, a young woman&’s body was found in Edinburgh at Christmastime: naked, throat slit, body washed clean. The final victim, Kirsty Summers, was Detective Constable Tony McLean's fiancée. But the Christmas Killer made a mistake, and McLean put an end to the brutal killing spree. It&’s now twelve years later. A fellow prisoner has just murdered the incarcerated Christmas Killer. But with the arrival of the festive season comes a body. A young woman: naked, washed, her throat cut. Is this a copycat killer? Was the wrong man behind bars all this time? Or is there a more frightening explanation? McLean must revisit the most disturbing case of his life and discover what he missed before the killer strikes again . . .
The Hidden Letters Of Velta B.: A Novel
by Gina OchsnerFINALIST FOR THE OREGON BOOK AWARDS—KEN KESEY AWARD FOR FICTION &“Intimate, vibrant, and richly colored.&”—Portland Monthly &“[An] extraordinary feat of storytelling . . . A spellbinding novel as tough as it is beautiful.&” — Helen Simonson, author of The Summer Before the War &“A beautifully spun tale . . . An astonishing alchemy of history, romance, and fable.&” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review Maris was born knowing things: his very large, very special ears enable him to hear the secrets of the dead, as well as the memories that haunt his Latvian hometown. As a boy, Maris finds himself heir to an odd assortment of hidden letters, letters from which he would weave a story that could finally expose—and maybe even patch—the holes in the fabric of his family and their town. With humor, heart, and her characteristic &“luminous writing [and] affection for her characters&” (New York Times), Gina Ochsner creates an intimate, hopeful portrait of a fascinating town in all its complications and charm. From the onset of World War II through the cold shock of independence, we see how, despite years of distrust, a community can come through love and loss to the joy of understanding. &“A captivating novel of secrets, love, and memory . . . This terrific novel knocked me out.&” —Janet Fitch, author of Paint It Black &“A gift on par with Joanne Harris&’s Chocolat . . . Quirky, ethereal, hilarious, and sorrowful.&” —Shelf Awareness
A Confederate General From Big Sur, Dreaming Of Babylon, The Hawkline Monster: A Confederate General From Big Sur, Dreaming Of Babylon, And The Hawkline Monster
by Richard BrautiganThis omnibus edition collects three classic novels by Richard Brautigan, "the counterculture's Mark Twain" (New York Times)."There is nothing like Richard Brautigan anywhere…This man has invented a genre, a whole new shot, a thing needed, delightful and right."??—??San Francisco Sunday Examiner & ChronicleA Confederate General from Big SurThe year is 1957 in a California that was a preview of things to come in America??—??the dawn of lifestyles that were eventually to have a profound and disturbing effect on our culture.Dreaming of Babylon: A Private Eye Novel 1942You are in San Francisco, and you need a private eye. Nobody's left but C. Card. And when you hire C. Card, you have scraped the bottom of the private-eye barrel as revealed in the fast, funny, slam-bang adventures of the seedy, not-too-bright detective.The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic WesternThe time is 1902, the setting eastern Oregon. Magic Child, a fifteen-year-old Indigenous girl, wanders into the wrong bordello looking for the right men to kill the monster that lives in the ice caves under the basement of Miss Hawkline's yellow house??—??sparking off a series of wild, witty, and bizarre encounters.
A Perfect Peace: A Novel
by Amos Oz&“Oz&’s strangest, riskiest, and richest novel.&” —Washington Post Book WorldIsrael, just before the Six-Day War. On a kibbutz, the country&’s founders and their children struggle to come to terms with their land and with each other. The messianic father exults in accomplishments that had once been only dreams; the son longs to establish an identity apart from his father; the fragile young wife is out of touch with reality; and the gifted and charismatic &“outsider&” seethes with emotion. Through the interplay of these brilliantly realized characters, Oz evokes a drama that is chillingly, strikingly universal.&“[Oz is] a peerless, imaginative chronicler of his country&’s inner and outer transformations.&” —Independent (UK)
Trieste: A Novel
by Dasa Drndic&“Splendid and absorbing . . . [Drndic] is writing to witness, and to make the pain stick . . . These dense and satisfying pages capture the crowdedness of memory.&” — New York Times Book Review Haya Tedeschi sits alone in Gorizia, in northeastern Italy, surrounded by a basket of photographs and newspaper clippings. Now an old woman, she waits to be reunited after sixty-two years with her son, fathered by an SS officer and stolen from her by the German authorities as part of Himmler&’s clandestine Lebensborn project. Haya reflects on her Catholicized Jewish family&’s experiences, in a narrative that deals unsparingly with the massacre of Italian Jews in the concentration camps of Trieste. Her obsessive search for her son leads her to photographs, maps, and fragments of verse, to testimonies from the Nuremberg trials and interviews with second-generation Jews, and to eyewitness accounts of atrocities that took place on her doorstep. From this broad collage of material and memory arises the staggering chronicle of Nazi occupation in northern Italy. &“Although this is fiction, it is also a deeply researched historical documentary . . . It is a masterpiece.&” — A. N. Wilson, Financial Times &“A book of events that have made the last century infamous for the ages, a book that, if it moves you as it moved me, you will have to set down now and then, to breathe." — Alan Cheuse, NPR
July, July: A Novel
by Tim O'Brien“Insidiously, compulsively readable.” — MSNBC At the thirtieth reunion of the Darton Hall College class of 1969, ten old friends join their classmates for a summer weekend of dancing, drinking, flirting, reminiscing, and regret. The three decades since graduation have brought marriage and divorce, children and careers, hopes deferred and replaced. July, July tells the heart-rending and often hilarious story of men and women who came into adulthood at a moment when American ideals and innocence began to fade. These lives will ring familiar to anyone who has dreamed, worked, and struggled to keep course toward a happy ending.With humor and a sense of wistful hope, July, July speaks directly to the American character and its resilience, striking deep at the emotional center of our lives. "A symphony of American life.” — All Things Considered, NPR “A small-scale tour de force by an American original . . . O’Brien is one of the most accomplished members of a generation of writers that includes Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution "Astonishing for [its] clarity of character, for [its] narrative thrills and surprises, for [its] humor and hard-won wisdom . . . July, July gives readers plenty of reasons to celebrate." — Chicago Sun-Times "Perceptive, affectionate and often very funny." — Boston Herald "A deeply satisfying story . . . O’Brien is intelligent and daring, but he is also eminently accessible.” — O, the Oprah Magazine"Taut and compelling." — Los Angeles Times Book Review"Beautifully realized, heartbreakingly honest." — Providence Journal-Bulletin “Almost impossible to put down.” — Austin American-Statesman
Mule: A Novel of Moving Weight
by Tony D'Souza“Thanks to its wicked style and pacing, Mule lets me forget I’m reading serious literature while I follow its terrifying story into the land of the all-American damned.” — Walter Kirn, author of Up in the Air “Mule is swift, taut, and relentless, both a rip-roaring drug tale and a fascinating portrait of a decent human being whose morals slowly disintegrate under unbearable financial strain.” — Lauren Groff, author of The Monsters of Templeton James and Kate are golden children of the late twentieth century, flush with opportunity. But an economic downturn and an unexpected pregnancy send them searching for a way to make do. A friend in California’s Siskiyou County grows prime-grade marijuana; if James transports just one load from Cali to Florida, he’ll pull down enough cash to survive for months. And so begins the life of a mule. A page-turning, Zeitgeist-capturing novel that plunges us into the criminal underworld with little chance to take a breath, Mule is about young people trying to make do in a moment when the American Dream they never had to believe in — because it was handed to them, fully wrapped and ready to go at the takeout window — suddenly vanishes from the menu. “With adrenaline-infused sentences and a seat-gripping story line, Mule is a novel that illuminates contemporary American desperation, both its dangerous precipices and its thrilling, overwhelming freedom.” — Dean Bakopoulos, author of My American Unhappiness
The Sky Over Lima: A Novel
by Juan Gómez Bárcena&“Refreshing, comic, and sublime...The conquest in this novel, a game played by one writer and his readers, captivates, drawing us in through the seductive power of a monumental young author.&” —Laura Esquivel, bestselling author of Like Water for Chocolate and Malinche &“Intoxicating…I&’ll be thinking of these characters, what they longed to create and what they managed to despoil, for a long time.&” —Helen OyeyemiA retelling of a fantastical true story: two young men seduce Nobel laureate Juan Ramón Jiménez with the words of an imaginary woman and inspire one of his greatest love poems. José Gálvez and Carlos Rodríguez are poets. Or, at least, they&’d like to be. Sons of Lima&’s elite in the early twentieth century, they scribble bad verses and read the greats: Rilke, Rimbaud, and, above all others, Juan Ramón Jímenez, the Spanish Maestro. Desperate for Jímenez&’s latest work, unavailable in Lima, they decide to ask him for a copy. They&’re sure Jímenez won&’t send two dilettantes his book, but he might favor a beautiful woman. They write to him as the lovely, imaginary Georgina Hübner. Jímenez responds with a letter and a book. Elated, José and Carlos write back. Their correspondence continues, as the Maestro falls in love with Georgina, and the boys abandon poetry for the pages of Jímenez&’s life.
A Woman In Jerusalem: A Novel
by A. B. YehoshuaA woman in her forties is a victim of a suicide bombing at a Jerusalem market. Her body lies nameless in a hospital morgue. She had apparently worked as a cleaning woman at a bakery, but there is no record of her employment. When a Jerusalem daily accuses the bakery of "gross negligence and inhumanity toward an employee," the bakery’s owner, overwhelmed by guilt, entrusts the task of identifying and burying the victim to a human resources man. This man is at first reluctant to take on the job, but as the facts of the woman’s life take shape—she was an engineer from the former Soviet Union, a non-Jew on a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and, judging by an early photograph, beautiful—he yields to feelings of regret, atonement, and even love. At once profoundly serious and highly entertaining, A. B. Yehoshua astonishes us with his masterly, often unexpected turns in the story and with his ability to get under the skin and into the soul of Israel today.
Southern Fried: More Than 150 recipes for Crab Cakes, Fried Chicken, Hush Puppies, and More
by James VillasHush puppies, fried chicken, crab cakes—fried food is the soul of Southern cooking and has only grown in popularity in recent years. Like every one of James Villas’s cookbooks, this one is impeccably researched, with flawless recipes, history, and culture. It is filled with gorgeous color photos sure to tempt even health food fanatics, with crispy, crunchy delights in chapters featuring eggs and cheese, seafood, breads, and Southern staples like grits, rice, and potatoes. Today’s deep fryers make frying easier and healthier than ever; it’s as easy as pushing a button, with no risk of splattering oil, and Villas’s expertly written recipes like Sassy Shrimp Puffs, Georgia Bacon and Eggs with Hominy, Country Fried Steak, Turkey Hash Cakes, and Rosemary Pork Chops will ensure perfect results. This isn’t diet food, to be sure, but these are dishes that people love, and it’s safer and healthier than ever to fry without any sacrifice in flavor.
Smoothie-Licious: Power-Packed Smoothies and Juices the Whole Family Will Love
by Jenna HelwigA smoothie might just be the perfect family food: an easy and delicious way to get kids and adults alike to eat more healthfully. A blessing for busy parents, they are whipped up in minutes, perfectly portable, and enjoyed by even the pickiest eaters. In Smoothie-licious, Parents magazine editor Jenna Helwig shows how to make 75 smoothies and whole-fruit juices that are both healthy and delicious. Kids will love the bright colors and playful names like Peanut Berry Blast and Mexican Frozen Hot Chocolate; parents will love that they feature nutrient-dense seeds, dark greens and fresh fruit, and use no refined sugars. Nutrition information accompanies every recipe and icon note high sources of vitamins and minerals as well as vegan, gluten free, and meal-in-a-glass smoothies. A treats chapter turns smoothies into fun popsicles, slushes, and shakes.
The Lost Luggage Porter: A Jim Stringer Mystery (The Jim Stringer Mysteries #3)
by Andrew MartinFrom the author of The Necropolis Railway and The Blackpool Highflyer comes another ingenious thriller featuring Jim Stringer. It is winter 1906 and Jim has been promoted from sleuth to official railway detective for York station. His first day on the job, the mysterious Lost Luggage Porter, "a human directory to everything in York," tips him off to a group of railway thieves. Jim is instructed by his Inspector to infiltrate their gang and is drawn along into their plot to carry out a robbery and make their getaway across the Channel. Soon Jim finds himself swept off to Paris with the thieves, his plight made even worse when threats are made against his wife. Can Jim get to get to her before the villains do? UK Praise for The Lost Luggage Porter:"Page-turning, confidently written…" – Guardian"The atmosphere of neglected streets…dingy saloon bars, supper of boiled bacon and pickles, and dismal, unceasing rain are splendidly evoked." – Telegraph
God's Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America
by Hanna RosinSince 2000, America’s most ambitious young evangelicals have been making their way to Patrick Henry College, a small Christian school just outside the nation’s capital. Most of them are homeschoolers whose idealism and discipline put the average American teenager to shame. And God’s Harvard grooms these students to be the elite of tomorrow, dispatching them to the front lines of politics, entertainment, and science, to wage the battle to take back a godless nation. Hanna Rosin spent a year and a half embedded at the college, following the students from the campus to the White House, Congress, conservative think tanks, Hollywood, and other centers of influence. Her account captures this nerve center of the evangelical movement at a moment of maximum influence and also of crisis, as it struggles to avoid the temptations of modern life and still remake the world in its own image.
The Hundred-Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey
by Dawn Anahid MacKeenThe award-winning story of a young Armenian man’s harrowing escape from the massacre of his people and of his granddaughter’s quest to retrace his steps ¶ “Part family heirloom, part history lesson, The Hundred-Year Walk is an emotionally poignant work, powerfully imagined and expertly crafted.”—Aline Ohanesian, author of Orhan’s Inheritance ¶ Growing up, Dawn MacKeen heard from her mother how her grandfather Stepan miraculously escaped from the Turks during the Armenian genocide of 1915, when more than one million people—half the Armenian population—were killed. In The Hundred-Year Walk MacKeen alternates between Stepan’s courageous account, drawn from his long-lost journals, and her own story as she attempts to retrace his steps, setting out alone to Turkey and Syria, shadowing her resourceful, resilient grandfather across a landscape still rife with tension. Dawn uses his journals to guide her to the places he was imperiled and imprisoned and the desert he crossed with only half a bottle of water. Their shared story is a testament to family, to home, and to the power of the human spirit to transcend the barriers of religion, ethnicity, and even time itself. ¶ A Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize · A New York Post Must-Read ¶ “This book reminds us that the way we treat strangers can ripple out in ways we will never know…MacKeen’s excavation of the past reveals both uncomfortable and uplifting lessons about our present.”—Ari Shapiro, NPR ¶ “I am in awe of what Dawn MacKeen has done…Her sentences sing. Her research shines. Her readers will be rapt—and a lot smarter by the end.”—Meghan Daum, author of The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion¶ “Harrowing.”—Us Weekly
The Lover: A Novel
by A. B. Yehoshua&“Elusive, haunting.&”—New York Times Book ReviewA husband&’s search for his wife&’s lover, lost amid the turbulence of the Yom Kippur War, is the heart of this dreamlike novel. Through five different perspectives, Yehoshua explores the realities and consequences of the affair and the search, laying bare deep-rooted tensions within family, between generations, between Jews and Arabs.&“[A] profound study of personal and political trauma.&” —Daily Telegraph"Has the symmetry of an elegantly cut gem.&” —The New Yorker
Winter Brothers: A Season at the Edge of America
by Ivan DoigThe author of This House of Sky provides a magnificent evocation of the Pacific Northwest through the diaries of James Gilchrist Swan, a settler of the region. Doig fuses parts of the Swan diaries with his own journal.
The Best American Science And Nature Writing 2013 (Best American)
by Tim FolgerPulitzer Prize–winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee, a leading cancer physician and researcher, selects the year’s top science and nature writing from journalists who dive into their fields with curiosity and passion, delivering must-read articles from a wide array of fields.
Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West
by Deanne StillmanMustang is the sweeping story of the wild horse in the culture, history, and popular imagination of the American West. It follows the wild horse across time, from its evolutionary origins on this continent to its return with the conquistadors, its bloody battles on the old frontier, its iconic status in Buffalo Bill shows and early westerns, and its plight today as it makes its last stand on the vanishing range. With the Bureau of Land Management proposing to euthanize thousands of horses and ever-encroaching development threatening the land, the mustang&’s position has never been more perilous. But as Stillman reveals, the horses are still running wild despite all the obstacles, with spirit unbroken. Hailed by critics nationwide, Mustang is "brisk, smart, thorough, and surprising" (Atlantic Monthly).
Heir To The Glimmering World: A Novel
by Cynthia OzickCynthia Ozick is an American master at the height of her powers in Heir to the Glimmering World, a grand romantic novel of desire, fame, fanaticism, and unimaginable reversals of fortune. Ozick takes us to the outskirts of the Bronx in the 1930s, as New York fills with Europe&’s ousted dreamers, turned overnight into refugees. Rose Meadows unknowingly enters this world when she answers an ambiguous want ad for an "assistant" to a Herr Mitwisser, the patriarch of a large, chaotic household. Rosie, orphaned at eighteen, has been living with her distant relative Bertram, who sparks her first erotic desires. But just as he begins to return her affection, his lover, a radical socialist named Ninel (Lenin spelled backward), turns her out. And so Rosie takes refuge from love among refugees of world upheaval. Cast out from Berlin&’s elite, the Mitwissers live at the whim of a mysterious benefactor, James A'Bair. Professor Mitwisser is a terrifying figure, obsessed with his arcane research. His distraught wife, Elsa, once a prominent physicist, is becoming unhinged. Their willful sixteen-year-old daughter runs the household: the exquisite, enigmatic Anneliese. Rosie's place here is uncertain, and she finds her fate hanging on the arrival of James. Inspired by the real Christopher Robin, James is the Bear Boy, the son of a famous children's author who recreated James as the fanciful subject of his books. Also a kind of refugee, James runs from his own fame, a boy adored by the world but grown into a bitter man. It is Anneliese&’s fierce longing that draws James back to this troubled house, and it is Rosie who must help them all resist James&’s reckless orbit. Ozick lovingly evokes these perpetual outsiders thrown together by surprising chance. The hard times they inherit still hold glimmers of past hopes and future dreams. Heir to the Glimmering World is a generous delight.