For fans of Jodi Picoult comes an enthralling domestic thriller about the lies we tell, and let ourselves believe, in the name of love. The first thing you should know is that everyone lies. The second thing is that it matters. On her way to her nineteenth wedding anniversary celebration, Natalie Falcone leaves the struggling restaurant she owns with her brother-in-law, Vince. She doesn't speak to him on her way out; they haven't spoken in months. But out on the sidewalk, she gets a phone call every mother dreads: It's from the emergency room where her daughter, Arden, attends college. Arden's been in a fire, along with Natalie's niece, Rory--Vince's daughter and Arden's best friend. Natalie rushes to the hospital and learns that both Arden and Rory lie unconscious, and that another student has died in the blaze. The police suspect arson. As the investigation mounts, Natalie struggles to piece together the elusive details of... Views: 36
“A boldly Joycean appropriation, fortunately not so difficult of entry as its great model… Like Zadie Smith’s much-acclaimed predecessor White Teeth (2000), NW is an urban epic.” --Joyce Carol Oates, *The New York Review of Books*This is the story of a city.The northwest corner of a city. Here you’ll find guests and hosts, those with power and those without it, people who live somewhere special and others who live nowhere at all. And many people in between.Every city is like this. Cheek-by-jowl living. Separate worlds.And then there are the visitations: the rare times a stranger crosses a threshold without permission or warning, causing a disruption in the whole system. Like the April afternoon a woman came to Leah Hanwell’s door, seeking help, disturbing the peace, forcing Leah out of her isolation…Zadie Smith’s brilliant tragi-comic new novel follows four Londoners - Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan – as they try to make adult lives outside of Caldwell, the council estate of their childhood. From private houses to public parks, at work and at play, their London is a complicated place, as beautiful as it is brutal, where the thoroughfares hide the back alleys and taking the high road can sometimes lead you to a dead end.Depicting the modern urban zone – familiar to town-dwellers everywhere – Zadie Smith’s NW is a quietly devastating novel of encounters, mercurial and vital, like the city itself.Amazon.com ReviewAmazon Best Books of the Month, September 2012: Zadie Smith's NW, an ode to the neighborhoods of northwest London where the author came of age, feels like a work in progress. For most writers, that would be a detriment. But in this case, the sense of imperfection feels like a privilege: a peek inside the fascinating brain of one of the most interesting writers of her generation. Smith (White Teeth, On Beauty) plays extensively with form and style--moving from screenplay-like dialogue to extremely short stories, from the first person to the third--but her characters don't matter as much as their setting. Smith is a master of literary cinematography. It's easy to picture her creations, flaws ablaze, as they walk the streets of London. --Alexandra FosterReview"This is a book in which you never know how things will come together or what will happen next... NW represents a deliberate undoing; an unpacking of Smith’s abundant narrative gifts to find a deeper truth, audacious and painful as that truth may be. The result is that rare thing, a book that is radical and passionate and real."—Anne Enright, The New York Times Book Review"A boldly Joycean appropriation, fortunately not so difficult of entry as its great model... Like Zadie Smith’s much-acclaimed predecessor White Teeth (2000), NW is an urban epic."—Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books"Absolutely brilliant... So electrically authentic, it reads like surveillance transcripts."—Lev Grossman, TIME"Endlessly fascinating... remarkable. ...The impression of Smith's casual brilliance is what constantly surprises, the way she tosses off insights about parenting and work that you've felt in some nebulous way but never been able to articulate."—Ron Charles, The Washington Post"Innovative and moving... This is a rich novel, as crammed with voices and layered with history and pop culture as is London itself. Smith’s flair for dialogue reaches a new height in NW, as she conveys the rhythms and diction of a variety of Londoners with wit and acuity. The story of what happens inside a person when she rises above the situation she was born into was of interest to Charles Dickens and Jane Austen, among countless other novelists. Zadie Smith has delivered her contribution to this literary tradition with aplomb."—*Dallas Morning News"Smith has never been a writer who travels directly from A to B... Smith is not interested in exploring the unbroken line of cause and effect. What NW does offer, in abundance, is the sense of being plunged with great immediacy into the lives of these characters and their neighborhood. How wonderful to have a new version of London to explore."—Boston Globe"If our everyday world suddenly turns dark, zany and lyrically weird one day, it's probably because Zadie Smith has learned how to control us all. In NW, Ms. Smith takes her courageous forays into the vernacular to new heights, using perspectives that are perhaps more native to her but in a form that feels brand new."—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"Zadie Smith is not merely one of Britain's finest younger writers, but also one of the English-speaking world's best chroniclers of race, class, and identity in urban confines. Smith remains fearless, and there are moments that astonish. Her ambition and talent continue to awe."—Philadelphia Inquirer"[NW is] a real sign of how Smith has developed and grown. It is a terrific novel: deeply ambitious, an attempt to use literature as a kind of excavation, while at the same time remaining intensely readable, intensely human, a portrait of the way we live."—Los Angeles Times *"A marvelously accomplished work, perhaps her most polished yet."—Laura Miller, Salon"A triumph... As Smith threads together her characters' inner and outer worlds, every sentence sings."—The Guardian"Smith's fiction has never been this deadly, direct, or economical... Where gifts are concerned, Smith is generous with hers; she writes, one feels, with our pleasure in mind... NW is Zadie Smith’s riskiest, meanest, most political and deeply felt book--but it all feels so effortless. She dazzles."—Parul Sehgal, Bookforum"NW offers a nuanced, disturbing exploration of the boundaries, some porous, some impenetrable, between people living cheek by jowl in urban centers where the widening gap between haves and have-nots has created chasms into which we're all in danger of falling."—NPR.org"A powerful portrait of class and identity in multicultural London. "—Entertainment Weekly"One of the most interesting portrayals of 30- something womanhood that I've come across in a long time. For other readers, Smith's brilliant eye and idiosyncratic ear should be ample enticement."—Bloomberg News"A master class in freestyle fiction writing. Smith mashes up voices and vignettes, poetry and instant messaging, bedroom preferences and murder, and keeps it all from collapsing into incoherent mush with deft, dry wit. Smith defines characters worth reading."—Newsday"In NW, Smith offers a robust novel bursting with life: a timely exploration of money, morals, class and authenticity that asks if we are ever truly the sole authors of our own fate."—BookPage(Praise ) Views: 36
With her trademark sensuality and lively humor, LuAnn McLane's holiday novella unites two adventurous strangers eager to come in from the cold ... If Claire Collins hadn't become so enchanted with the hand-carved figurines for sale at the Whisper, Colorado, gift shop she never would have missed her train. Now she's stranded at the station during a winter storm with no place to stay - and no chance of getting home for Christmas. Until she meets the artist who came in from the cold. Jesse, the sexy local sculptor, is flattered that it was his very own handiwork that brought them together. What better way to show his appreciation than by offering lodging to Claire to wait out the storm? What comes next is fresh strawberries, hot chocolate, and a crackling fire to lift Claire's flagging spirit - and an even warmer man to make her temperature rise like she never could have dreamed. Hot Whisper previously appeared in Wicked Wonderland Views: 36
Local volunteer fire fighter Leon King agrees to repair his ex-girlfriend Susie Bontrager's grandparents' antique rocking chairs for her future home with her fiance and is forced to acknowledge that his feelings for her have not quite gone away. As Susie spends time with Leon, she begins to recognize she is marrying the wrong man for all the wrong reasons. Views: 36
The high-spirited correspondence between New York Times bestselling author Paul Auster and Nobel laureate J. M. CoetzeeAlthough Paul Auster and J. M. Coetzee had been reading each other’s books for years, the two writers did not meet until February 2008. Not long after, Auster received a letter from Coetzee, suggesting they begin exchanging letters on a regular basis and, “God willing, strike sparks off each other.”Here and Now is the result of that proposal: the epistolary dialogue between two great writers who became great friends. Over three years their letters touched on nearly every subject, from sports to fatherhood, film festivals to incest, philosophy to politics, from the financial crisis to art, death, family, marriage, friendship, and love.Their correspondence offers an intimate and often amusing portrait of these two men as they explore the complexities of the here and now and is a reflection of two sharp intellects whose pleasure in each other’s friendship is apparent on every page.About the AuthorPaul Auster is the bestselling author of The New York Trilogy and many other critically acclaimed novels. He was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in 2006. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.J. M. Coetzee is the author of twenty books, which have been translated into many languages. He is the first author to be awarded the Booker Prize twice: first for Life & Times of Michael K and then for Disgrace. In 2003 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. A native of South Africa, he now lives in Australia. Views: 36
New York Times bestselling author Diana Palmer revisits two classics tales of Long, Tall Texan passionLong, Tall Texans: Rey (originally published as A Man of Means in 2002 by Silhouette Desire)From the moment cattleman Rey Hart first sets eyes on Meredith Johns, he is mesmerized. He asks the lovely young woman to become the cook on his ranch, but convincing her to take the job is a cinch compared to breaking the enchanting spell she casts over this long, tall Texan's heart.Long, Tall Texans: Curtis (originally published as Garden Cop in 2002 in WITH A SOUTHERN TOUCH anthology)Hunting down a missing informant, FBI Agent Curtis Russell is determined to accomplish his mission at any cost. So when he butts heads with his mother's beautiful neighbor, deputy D.A. Mary... Views: 36
Christmas is a time for...fruitcake. Rookie reporter Emma Collins hates fruitcake; for that matter, she hates Christmas, too. When three Washington State women are finalists in a national fruitcake contest, the story is assigned to her. That's bad enough. It gets worse when she has to fly in a small plane (scary!) with a smart-aleck pilot named Oliver Hamilton (sexy!) and his scruffy dog (cute!). In the end she meets three wise women, falls in love and learns There's Something About Christmas.This is also a time for families, for togetherness, for memories. On Christmas Eve, Maryanne and Nolan Adams tell their kids the story they most want to hear--how Mom and Dad met and fell in love. It all started when they were reporters on rival Seattle papers...and next thing you know, Here Comes Trouble! Views: 36
