A "gorgeous" (New York Times) memoir that braids the evolution of one of America's most iconic branding campaigns with the stirring tales of the women who lived behind its facade - told by the inheritor of their stories.One of People Magazine's Best Books of Summer An Amazon Best Book of the MonthAn Indie Next PickA Real Simple Best Book of 2018In 1899, Allie Rowbottom's great-great-great-uncle bought the patent to Jell-O from its inventor for $450. The sale would turn out to be one of the most profitable business deals in American history, and the generations that followed enjoyed immense privilege - but they were also haunted by suicides, cancer, alcoholism, and mysterious ailments. More than 100 years after that deal was struck, Allie's mother Mary was diagnosed with the same incurable cancer, a disease that had also claimed her own mother's life. Determined to combat what she had come to consider the "Jell-O curse"... Views: 63
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the YearA Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the YearSigrid Nunez's The Last of Her Kind introduces two women who meet as freshmen on the Columbia campus in 1968. Georgette George does not know what to make of her brilliant, idealistic roommate, Ann Drayton, and her obsessive disdain for the ruling class into which she was born. She is mortified by Ann's romanticization of the underprivileged class, which Georgette herself is hoping college will enable her to escape. After the violent fight that ends their friendship, Georgette wants only to forget Ann and to turn her attention to the troubled runaway kid sister who has reappeared after years on the road. Then, in 1976, Ann is convicted of murder. At first, Ann's fate appears to be the inevitable outcome of her belief in the moral imperative to "make justice" in a world where "there are no innocent white people." But, searching for... Views: 63
First published in 1968, Desert Solitaire is one of Edward Abbey's most critically acclaimed works and marks his first foray into the world of nonfiction writing. Written while Abbey was working as a ranger at Arches National Park outside of Moab, Utah, Desert Solitaire is a rare view of one man's quest to experience nature in its purest form.Through prose that is by turns passionate and poetic, Abbey reflects on the condition of our remaining wilderness and the future of a civilization that cannot reconcile itself to living in the natural world as well as his own internal struggle with morality. As the world continues its rapid development, Abbey's cry to maintain the natural beauty of the West remains just as relevant today as when this book was written.ABOUT THE AUTHOREdward Abbey was born in Home, Pennsylvania in 1927. In 1944, at the age of 17, Abbey set out to explore the American Southwest, bumming around the country by hitchhiking and hopping freight trains. It... Views: 62
Growing up in a family of political journalists—and daughter of President Reagan's White House social secretary—Ali Wentworth rebelled against her blue-blood upbringing, embracing Hollywood, motorcycles, even a few wildly inappropriate marriage proposals. Today she is an acclaimed comedic actress and writer, former Oprah regular, wife of political and media star George Stephanopoulos, and a mother who lets her two girls eat cotton candy before bed. Though she's settled down, her rebellious nature thrives in her comedy and her view of her crazy world.In this addictively funny and warm memoir, she takes us through the looking glass and into the wonderland of her life, from a childhood among Washington's elite to a stint in the psych ward they called a New England prep school; days doing L.A. sketch comedy (with then-aspiring artists Will Ferrell and Lisa Kudrow) to a series of spectacularly failed loves (that eventually led her to Mr. Right). Constant throughou... Views: 62
A close friendship between two struggling women writers evolves into a passionate love affair. What could go wrong? Well, pretty much everything... San Francisco in the mid-to-late 1990s and two women are trying to build a successful lesbian relationship. But issues of self-image, love, sexuality, and intimacy somehow seem to push them apart just as much as bring them closer. They say opposites attract, and on the surface it could even be true. But relationships are about going deeper, and all too often finding out that the things we see and like to begin with are only a thin layer of the person we want to get to know. Views: 62
In the rarefied world of New York City psychoanalysts and their patients, Dr. Estelle Berman belongs to a dying breed. A distinguished analyst, she lives and practices on the Upper West Side and changes outfits between patients, some of whom she likes more than others. And now she has started falling asleep during meetings and forgetting her patients' names. Her colleagues Dr. H. and Dr. Z. observe her mental decline with the objectivity of a Greek chorus, but when it comes to the disappointments in their own lives, they are far less detached. And then there are the patients: Justine, a movie star with a penchant for stealing things; Edith, who writes poems in secret and eats to subdue feelings of panic; and Anna, a self-harming college student whose depression baffles her parents. Ballad of the Black and Blue Mind is a novel of psychological realities that cut close to the bone, a book that dares to show us humanity in all its messy, mystifying, and glorious... Views: 62
The D.D.I. recognized him and smiled. "That was a great case you brought us. You'll be interested to hear that it is a case of mur-r-der!"For eight years Basil Thomson headed the famous C.I.D., New Scotland Yard. He knew the Yard inside out. Now in this tale of mystery and detection we are taken behind the scenes. We are shown the greatest detection machine in the world in motion, and see how the Yard tracked down its man.Stand, then, with young P.C. Richardson on the misty corner of Baker Street, while the traffic of the city swings by, and fate lays at his feet the beginning of his career. Out of the fog brakes shriek, a big car jolts to a stop, and from beneath the wheels the crowd disentangles a bundle of old clothes, within which is a man quite dead; a man who had said to someone, "Very well, then; I'll call a policeman"—and was killed. Work with him to the ingenious solution, when he takes from his pocket the clue holding the fate of a human... Views: 62
School psychologists aren’t supposed to write books about sex. Doing so would be considered “unethical” and “a fireable offense.” Lucky for you, ethics was never my strong suit. After spending years trying to spice up my sex life, I gave up and took to my journal. Perhaps my gorgeous, cold, number crunching husband simply wasn’t capable of the kind of passion I’d come to expect. After all, my ex-boyfriends—a skinhead turned US Marine turned motorcycle club outlaw, a baby-faced punk rocker out on parole, and a heavy-metal bass player—were every bit as tattooed and testosterone-fueled as the leading men in my favorite romance novels. If I couldn’t have that kind of passion again in real life, at least I could write about it. Right? Nobody had to know. It would be my little secret. Well, guess what? My husband read that shit. And guess what else? He upped his fucking game. Drunk with power and under the dubious advisement of my best friend and colleague, I began testing the limits—crafting journal entries specifically designed to manipulate Ken’s behavior. For the most part, he responded beautifully…except when he didn’t. Told through actual journal entries, steamy short stories, personal emails, a few haikus, and at least one dirty limerick, 44 Chapters About 4 Men chronicles the year I spent toying with my husband’s mind and ignoring all ethical standards of psychology. I decided to publish it in the hopes that someone out there might benefit from my discovery—or at least laugh at it—but in doing so I’m risking more than just my career. If word of this book gets back to Ken, I could lose the very man I’ve worked so hard to perfect.** Views: 62
Dazzlingly, daringly written, marrying the thoughtful originality of Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts with the revelatory power of Neurotribes and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, this propulsive, stunning book illuminates the experience of living with schizophrenia like never before.Sandra Allen did not know her uncle Bob very well. As a child, she had been told he was "crazy," that he had spent time in mental hospitals while growing up in Berkeley in the 60s and 70s. But Bob had lived a hermetic life in a remote part of California for longer than she had been alive, and what little she knew of him came from rare family reunions or odd, infrequent phone calls. Then in 2009 Bob mailed her his autobiography. Typewritten in all caps, a stream of error-riddled sentences over sixty, single-spaced pages, the often incomprehensible manuscript proclaimed to be a "true story" about being "labeled a psychotic paranoid schizophrenic," and arrived with a plea... Views: 62
Who says men think about sex more than women do? Abby Lee is a smart, determined young woman who for almost three years has been writing an online journal about her sex life. Her writing is everything that writing about sex should be—frank, hysterical, provocative, and completely honest. Her website quickly attracted thousands of hits a day, with both men and women drawn to her observations about masturbation, one-night stands, and same-sex encounters. Girl with a One Track Mind is a year-long diary of Abby's desires, fantasies, and anxieties as she tries to answer the question: why do I always think about sex? Celebrating both her sensuality and her physical needs, Abby explores a swingers' club and a Dominatrix dungeon, and even participates in a pre-arranged three-way (which ends without any satisfaction for her). In between her new experiences are run-ins with lifelong friends; potential romances; and long, frustrating nights when all she really wants is a "great... Views: 62
