From the bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook comes a heartfelt and rebellious novel in the vein of The Perks of Being a Wallflower.**
Nanette O'Hare has played the quintessential privileged star athlete and straight-A student for as long as she can remember. But when a beloved teacher gives her his worn copy of The Bubblegum Reaper--a mysterious, out-of-print cult classic--the rebel within Nanette awakens.
As the new and outspoken Nanette attempts to insert her true self into the world with wild abandon, she learns that rebellion can sometimes come at a high price...and with devastating consequences. Views: 714
A powerful new novel about an ordinary family facing extraordinary times at the start of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
China, 1957. Chairman Mao has declared a new openness in society: “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.” Many intellectuals fear it is only a trick, and Kai Ying’s husband, Sheng, a teacher, has promised not to jeopardize their safety or that of their young son, Tao. But one July morning, just before his sixth birthday, Tao watches helplessly as Sheng is dragged away for writing a letter criticizing the Communist Party and sent to a labor camp for “reeducation.”
A year later, still missing his father desperately, Tao climbs to the top of the hundred-year-old kapok tree in front of their home, wanting to see the mountain peaks in the distance. But Tao slips and tumbles thirty feet to the courtyard below, badly breaking his leg.
As Kai Ying struggles to hold her small family together in the face of this shattering reminder of her husband’s absence, other members of the household must face their own guilty secrets and strive to find peace in a world where the old sense of order is falling. Once again, Tsukiyama brings us a powerfully moving story of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with grace and courage. Views: 714
Jesus' Son, the first collection of stories by Denis Johnson, presents a unique, hallucinatory vision of contemporary American life unmatched in power and immediacy and marks a new level of achievement for this acclaimed writer. In their intensity of perception, their neon-lit evocation of a strange world brought uncomfortably close to our own, the stories in Jesus' Son offer a disturbing yet eerily beautiful portrayal of American loneliness and hope.
Contains:
Car Crash While Hitchhiking
Two Men
Out on Bail
Dundun
Work
Emergency
Dirty Wedding
The Other Man
Happy Hour
Steady Hands at Seattle General
Beverly Home' Views: 714
The Sonoran Desert in the American Southwest is a place of extremes and contrasts, of beauty and death, of independent spirits and lost souls, of fresh starts and exiles.Three short stories, three different genres, all set in the Sonoran Desert, each with characters in exile of one form or another. One author with a unique perspective and voice.The Sonoran Desert in the American Southwest is a place of extremes and contrasts, of beauty and death, of independent spirits and lost souls, of fresh starts and exiles.Three short stories, three different genres, all set in the Sonoran Desert, each with characters in exile of one form or another. One author with a unique perspective and voice.Cordelia lives alone in a shack miles from civilization, somewhere no one can find her except for a very determined suitor. Raymond shows up every twelve years to consummate his marriage to the bride he'd claimed at her birth. Every twelve years, Cordelia fends off his unwanted advances – by killing him. The smell of death precedes his arrival each time, unless the sweet scent of a freshly fallen 'DESERT RAIN' masks his approach. Horror Bound magazine honored this award-winning story in its 'Best Of 2008-2012' edition. Denny has lost everything in the recession. His business. His Scottsdale home on the side of a mountain with swimming pool and four-car garage. His ambition. His wife. With nothing left to lose but an injured foot, his sanity, or his life, he heads out on a hundred-mile 'DESERT WALK' to find Hope.When the sun goes down and the scorching heat cools down to an uncomfortable swelter, bored teenagers gather to spend the 'DESERT NIGHTS' out by the power lines, drinking beer, hooking up, arguing over the best rock bands of all time. Maybe shoot at some rattlesnakes and jackrabbits. Nothing could possibly go wrong here.What others are saying about SONORAN DREAMS:"Robb Grindstaff is a master storyteller!" —Maria Grazia, Horror Bound Magazine"I don't think there is any genre Robb Grindstaff can't conquer. Some writers excel at characterization, others at plot, and still others are best known for their unique prose style. Robb is a triple threat, and any book with his name on it is bound to be a great read. —S.P. Miskowski, author of Knock Knock"Robb Grindstaff has a wicked sense of humor, a keen eye on the human psyche, and impeccable timing. His prose crackles and doesn't waste a syllable. These stories turn the desert Southwest of Cormac McCarthy into a carnival funhouse." —Pete Morin, author, Diary of a Small Fish"Robb's talent for creating real-life characters and bringing us into their lives is extraordinary, but what marks him apart from so many others writing today is how American his voice is—Robb's writing amuses, charms and yet, when you least expect it, can still challenge and shock." —Alexander McNabb, author, Olives: A Violent Romance"Robb Grindstaff's seamlessly written stories are full of strong characters, rendered with wit and subtlety. Stories unfold gently, judgments are never made, and the reader is left with a story that resonates long after the book is closed. His writing reminds me of John Irving (The World According to Garp; A Prayer for Owen Meany). " —Phillipa Fioretti, author, The Book of Love Views: 714
SHE is a director of dog food commercials who's just been recruited to finish a four-day movie shoot. But as soon as Lucy Armstrong arrives on set, she discovers that the staff is in chaos, the make-up artist is suicidal, and the stunt director just happens to be her ex-husband. That, and the temperamental lead actor has just acquired as an advisor a Green Beret who has the aggravating habit of always being right.
HE thought that hiring on as a military consultant for a movie star was a to-die-for deal: easy work, easy money, easier starlets. But his first day on the job, Captain J.T. Wilder ends up babysitting a bumbling comedian, dodging low-flying helicopters, and trying to find out who's taking "shooting a movie" much too literally. Views: 714
Social media undertaker Kendall Barber has discovered something about his new subject - an email set up to be sent after his death. What is in the email - and why is his client, the dead man's brother, so eager to find out?This short story is a mini-sequel to the crime novella 'The Obituarist', but it can also be read as a stand-alone story.Social media undertaker Kendall Barber has discovered something about his new subject - an email set up to be sent after his death. What is in the email - and why is his client, the dead man's brother, so eager to find out?This short story is a mini-sequel to the crime novella 'The Obituarist', but it can also be read as a stand-alone story. Views: 714
Avec la mort de Charles IV le Bel s'éteint la dynastie capétienne, remplacée par les Valois. Le comte Robert d'Artois s'est dépensé sans compter pour faire attribuer la couronne à son cousin Philippe de Valois. En échange, il attend qu'on lui rende le comté de ses aïeux. Pour soutenir son bon droit, rien ne l'arrête : ni l'usage de faux ni le parjure ou les crimes. Déchu de ses titres, banni de sa patrie, c'est lui qui prononcera, devant le roi Edouard III et le Parlement d'Angleterre, la harangue qui sera le premier acte de la guerre de Cent Ans. Views: 714
J. P. Donleavy has been writing now for forty-five years and, as he admits, an answer to the question why is ' difficult to dig out of a long past'. Yet over these pages he author's query is largely answered for him: he has written so much for so long because he writes so very well.
From the banks of the Seine to the streets of the Bronx, from the stables of the Dublin Horse Show to cocktails at Claridge's, we are transported by these collected short pieces into the singular and spirited world of J. P. Donleavy. Bringing an uncommonly objective yet affectionate eye to his writings on his own birthplace, America, balancing unabashed adoration with good-humoured bewilderment in his depiction of his heart's home, Ireland, the author presents us with a fresh, engaging vista that could only be his own.
Whether reviewing a book on sexual exercises for women or paying homage to Yeats, the impress is unmistakably Donleavy's. The initial publication of these pieces in various newspapers and journals around the world gave the author particular pleasure because he knew that he would reach people who were not normally book readers. However, he admits that the fate of most periodicals and newspapers is to be used to 'wrap fish, keep vagrants warm and help light fires'. Books, on the other hand, 'preserve their pages better between covers', and with their publication here he hopes that 'these pieces separately written over these many years can now keep each other company'.
An Author and His Image offers a comprehensive overview of one of the most original and incisive voices of the last half-century. Views: 714
Winner of the Carnegie Medal: Threatened with being sent to separate orphanages, a brother and sister run away and join the circus
When the aunt who raised them dies, 12-year-old Peter and his 11-year-old sister, Santa, face their greatest fear: being sent to separate orphanages. Vowing to stay together, they track down their only remaining relative.
Uncle Gus, the black sheep of the family, has been with Cob’s Circus since the war. Peter and Santa arrive just in time to see the caravans pull up. Almost before their eyes, the tents appear and an extraordinary world comes to life. They meet Alexsis Petoff and his family of acrobats; the Schmidt twins and their amazing sea lions; Lorenzo, the ornery waltzing-horse; and a trick poodle named Mis. Soon, Santa is practicing tumbling and Peter is learning to ride. They feel like they are part of the circus community. But life under the big top is hard work, and Santa and Peter will have to rise to the challenge or leave the one place they can finally call home.
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When Katie Kitrell is shipped off to boarding school, it doesn't take her long to become part of the It Crowd. She's smart, she's cute, and she's a swimming prodigy who has a first-class ticket to any Ivy League school of her choice. But what her new friends, roommate, and boyfriend don't know is that Katie is swimming away from the secrets of her past, and from the schizophrenic older brother, Will, who won't let her go. As Katie's star rises, Will descends deeper into insanity. And when he does the unthinkable, it's all Katie can do to keep her head above water. Largely based on the author's own experiences, Breathless is a stunning debut that explores illness and health, love and lust, friends and enemies, and the moneyed world of prep school with a deft, expert hand. Views: 713
In a famous but declining Hollywood bar works A Barman. Morbidly amused by the decadent decay of his surroundings, he watches the patrons fall into their nightly oblivion, making notes for his novel. In the hope of uncovering their secrets and motives, he establishes tentative friendships with the cast of variously pathological regulars.
But as his tenure at the bar continues, he begins to serve himself more often than his customers, and the moments he lives outside the bar become more and more painful: he loses his wife, his way, himself. Trapped by his habits and his loneliness, he realizes he will not survive if he doesn't break free. And so he hatches a terrible, necessary plan of escape and his only chance for redemption.
Step into Ablutions and step behind the bar, below rock bottom, and beyond the everyday take on storytelling for a brilliant, new twist on the classic tale of addiction and its consequences. Views: 713
A father frantically prepares for his daughter's birthday party only to come across a stumbling block that threatens to ruin the day. A short story by Scott Semegran.Horrified by the violence following Iran's 2009 contested presidential elections, the author, Mojdeh Marashi is reminded of her parents’ ordeal during another disheartening event for Iranian people, the 1953 coup d'état. Saboteur, the first of a series, is told by a pair of white doves who in the tradition of old Persian storytellers recount the event in a hot summer afternoon when a sea of men inThis is a fictional memoir by Mojdeh Marashi, a writer, translator, artist and designer who is deeply influenced by the ancient and modern history of Iran. This story merges the world of magical realism in Persian literature that Mojdeh grew up reading, the reality of the world she lives in today, and the utopia she dreams about.Mojdeh is the translator (from Persian, with Chad Sweeney) of The Selected Poems of H. E. Sayeh: The Art of Stepping Through Time (White Pine, 2011). Her fiction was published in the anthology Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been: Women of the Iranian Diaspora (University of Arkansas, 2006). She was born in Tehran, Iran and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1977, and now lives and work in Palo Alto, California. She is the Managing Partner at Blurred Whisper, an Idea and Design studio in Palo Alto, California, which she co-founded in 2002.Mojdeh studied at California College of Arts (CCA) and later at San Francisco State University where she earned her M.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts and an M.A. in Creative Writing. Views: 713
Shosha is a hauntingly lyrical love story set in Jewish Warsaw on the eve of its annihilation. Aaron Greidinger, an aspiring Yiddish writer and the son of a distinguished Hasidic rabbi, struggles to be true to his art when faced with the chance at riches and a passport to America. But as he and the rest of the Writers' Club wait in horror for Nazi Germany to invade Poland, Aaron rediscovers Shosha, his childhood love-still living on Krochmalna Street, still mysteriously childlike herself-who has been waiting for him all these years. Views: 713
Adrian Mole has grown up. At least that’s what it says on his passport. But living at home, clinging to his threadbare cuddly rabbit ‘Pinky’, working as a paper pusher for the DoE and pining for the love of his life Pandora has proved to him that adulthood isn’t quite what he hoped it would be. Still, intellectual poets can’t always have things their own way …
Included here are two other less well-known diarists: Sue Townsend and Margaret Hilda Roberts, a rather ambitious grocer’s daughter from Grantham. Views: 713
It is the year 2066. The American Government has changed dramatically. In a world where anyone can become president, there exists a system that judges the qualities of America's next leader. Its name is UNCLE SAM. Through this highly advanced supercomputer, qualified people are chosen without scrutiny and human fault. What was not foreseen, however, was SAM not choosing the next president of the United States. If something is not done, war will break out, and America will be no more. At a gathering of America's most powerful men, Harry Larkin is secretly sworn in as President. Although he is a political science professor, he manages to pull himself together in order to govern an America on the brink of a political meltdown. Views: 713
