Author: Pamela Paul
Publisher: Henry Holt
ISBN: 1627796312
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
"For twenty-eight years, Pamela Paul has been keeping a diary that records the books she reads, rather than the life she leads. Or does it? Over time, it's become clear that this Book of Books, or Bob, as she calls him, tells a much bigger story. For Paul, as for many readers, books reflect her inner life--her fantasies and hopes, her dreams and ideas. And her life, in turn, influences which books she chooses, whether for solace or escape, diversion or self-reflection, information or entertainment. My Life with Bob isn't about what's in those books; it's about the relationship between books and readers"--
Author: Ann Fraistat
Publisher: Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0593382161
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 337
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Book Description
For fans of Wilder Girls comes a nightmarish debut guaranteed to keep you up through the night, about an idyllic small town poisoned by its past, and one girl who must fight the strange disease that's slowly claiming everyone she loves. Wren owes everything she has to her hometown, Hollow’s End, a centuries-old, picture-perfect slice of America. Tourists travel miles to marvel at its miracle crops, including the shimmering, iridescent wheat of Wren’s family’s farm. At least, they did. Until five months ago. That’s when the Quicksilver blight first surfaced, poisoning the farms of Hollow’s End one by one. It began by consuming the crops, thick silver sludge bleeding from the earth. Next were the animals. Infected livestock and wild creatures staggered off into the woods by day—only to return at night, their eyes fogged white, leering from the trees. Then the blight came for the neighbors. Wren is among the last locals standing, and the blight has finally come for her, too. Now the only one she can turn to is her ex, Derek, the last person she wants to call. They haven’t spoken in months, but Wren and Derek still have one thing in common: Hollow’s End means everything to them. Only, there’s much they don’t know about their hometown and its celebrated miracle crops. And they’re about to discover that miracles aren’t free. Their ancestors have an awful lot to pay for, and Wren and Derek are the only ones left to settle old debts.
Author: Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0593356020
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 401
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Book Description
Four teenagers grow inseparable in the last days of the Soviet Union—but not all of them will live to see the new world arrive in this powerful debut novel, loosely based on Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. “Spectacular . . . intensely evocative and gorgeously written . . . will fill readers’ eyes with tears and wonder.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: New York Post Coming of age in the USSR in the 1980s, best friends Anya and Milka try to envision a free and joyful future for themselves. They spend their summers at Anya’s dacha just outside of Moscow, lazing in the apple orchard, listening to Queen songs, and fantasizing about trips abroad and the lives of American teenagers. Meanwhile, Anya’s parents talk about World War II, the Blockade, and the hardships they have endured. By the time Anya and Milka are fifteen, the Soviet Empire is on the verge of collapse. They pair up with classmates Trifonov and Lopatin, and the four friends share secrets and desires, argue about history and politics, and discuss forbidden books. But the world is changing, and the fleeting time they have together is cut short by a sudden tragedy. Years later, Anya returns to Russia from America, where she has chosen a different kind of life, far from her family and childhood friends. When she meets Lopatin again, he is a smug businessman who wants to buy her parents’ dacha and cut down the apple orchard. Haunted by the ghosts of her youth, Anya comes to the stark realization that memory does not fade or disappear; rather, it moves us across time, connecting our past to our future, joys to sorrows. Inspired by Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry’s The Orchard powerfully captures the lives of four Soviet teenagers who are about to lose their country and one another, and who struggle to survive, to save their friendship, to recover all that has been lost.
Author: Eloghosa Osunde
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 059333003X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 321
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Book Description
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE AND THE VCU CABELL FIRST NOVELIST AWARD “If you read one debut novel in 2022, this should be it.” —Los Angeles Times In the bustling streets and cloistered homes of Lagos, a cast of vivid characters—some haunted, some defiant—navigate danger, demons, and love in a quest to lead true lives. As in Nigeria, vagabonds are those whose existence is literally outlawed: the queer, the poor, the displaced, the footloose and rogue spirits. They are those who inhabit transient spaces, who make their paths and move invisibly, who embrace apparitions, old vengeances and alternative realities. Eloghosa Osunde's brave, fiercely inventive novel traces a wild array of characters for whom life itself is a form of resistance: a driver for a debauched politician with the power to command life and death; a legendary fashion designer who gives birth to a grown daughter; a lesbian couple whose tender relationship sheds unexpected light on their experience with underground sex work; a wife and mother who attends a secret spiritual gathering that shifts her world. As their lives intertwine—in bustling markets and underground clubs, churches and hotel rooms—vagabonds are seized and challenged by spirits who command the city's dark energy. Whether running from danger, meeting with secret lovers, finding their identities, or vanquishing their shadowselves, Osunde's characters confront and support one another, before converging for the once-in-a-lifetime gathering that gives the book its unexpectedly joyous conclusion. Blending unvarnished realism with myth and fantasy, Vagabonds! is a vital work of imagination that takes us deep inside the hearts, minds, and bodies of a people in duress—and in triumph.
Author: Laura Kasischke
Publisher: Sarabande Books
ISBN: 1936747510
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 162
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Book Description
Fifteen “alarming and gorgeous” stories from the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author about the quiet terrors of American life (The Boston Globe). Laura Kasischke, national bestselling author of The Life Before Her Eyes and White Bird in a Blizzard, both adapted for film, looks behind the quietude of domesticity to find the “strange and unexpected and sometimes extraordinary” in this collection of stories that “defies simple definition” (Booklist). In “Mona,” a mother violates her daughter’s privacy certain she’s hiding a dreadful secret. In “You’re Going to Die,” a girl delights in the cruel power she has over her ailing father. In “Search Continues for Elderly Man,” a little boy’s invitation for a lonely old neighbor to come out and play takes a shocking turn. In “Our Father,” children camouflage their sleeping dad in dirty rags to protect him. But from what?; and in the title story, a woman agrees to carry a package aboard a plane for a stranger despite—or perhaps, because of—her fantasizes about potential disaster. Populated by people coming to terms with a life that is just a little bit off—after there is a tiny mummified heart in a dresser drawer of a suburban home, If a Stranger Approaches You is “an important addition to [Kasischeke’s] own body of work and to the contemporary literature of end times” —NPR Books
Author: Robert Lopshire
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0385754531
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 40
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Book Description
Spot, the beloved hero of Put Me in the Zoo, is back in another Beginner Book classic. When Spot grows tired of doing tricks in the circus, he decides to turn into another animal. But what kind? An elephant? An elephant is too big. A giraffe? A giraffe is too tall. How about a mouse? Can Spot’s friends help him see that the very best thing to be is himself? I Want to Be Somebody New! is a spot-on tale of individuality and friendship. Beginner Books are fun, funny, and easy to read! Launched by Dr. Seuss in 1957 with the publication of The Cat in the Hat, this beloved early reader series motivates children to read on their own by using simple words with illustrations that give clues to their meaning. Featuring a combination of kid appeal, supportive vocabulary, and bright, cheerful art, Beginner Books will encourage a love of reading in children ages 3–7. "Spot changes from elephant to giraffe to mouse, trying to find a new identity, but discovers that every animal shape has its drawbacks. This intelligent, cheerful sequel, with its simple rhyming text, lives up to the reputation of its predecessor." —Publishers Weekly
Author: Meg Cox
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 9780762443185
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
Offers instructions or "recipes" for creating new family rituals or traditions, in categories such as "holidays," "family festivities and ceremonies," and "rites of passage."
Author: Kevin Emerson
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062976982
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 467
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Book Description
From the acclaimed author of the Chronicle of the Dark Star comes a riveting mystery, perfect for fans of Stranger Things, about a girl who sets out to find her missing best friend—and discovers her small town is hiding a dark, centuries-old secret. Jovie is adrift. She’d been feeling alone ever since her best friend, Micah, left her behind for a new group of friends—but when Micah went missing last fall, Jovie felt truly lost. Now, months later, the search parties have been called off, and the news alerts have dried up. There’s only Jovie, biking around Far Haven, Washington, putting up posters with Micah’s face on them, feeling like she’s the only one who remembers her friend at all. This feeling may be far closer to the truth than Jovie knows. As strange storms beset Far Haven, she is shocked to discover that Micah isn’t just missing—she’s been forgotten completely by everyone in town. And Micah isn’t the only one: there are others, roaming the beaches, camped in the old bunkers, who have somehow been lost from the world. When Jovie and her new friend Sylvan dig deeper, they learn that the town’s history is far stranger and more deadly than anyone knows. Something disastrous is heading for Far Haven, and Jovie and Sylvan soon realize that it is up to them to save not only Micah, but everyone else who has been lost to the world and set adrift—now, in the past, and in the future.
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
ISBN: 0593449185
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 369
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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Your Life comes a humorous and heartwarming novel about family and finding a second chance at love, set against the backdrop of the most fabulous party you’ve ever snuck into. “Sophie Kinsella keeps her finger on the cultural pulse, while leaving me giddy with laughter.”—Jojo Moyes, author of The Giver of Stars and The Last Letter from Your Lover It’s been almost two years since Effie’s beloved parents got divorced, destroying the image of the happy, loving childhood she thought she had. Since then, she’s become estranged from her father and embarked on a feud with his hot (and much younger) girlfriend, Krista. And now, more earth-shattering news: They’ve sold Greenoaks, the rambling Victorian country house Effie has always called home. When Krista decides to throw a grand “house-cooling” party, Effie is originally left off the guest list—and then receives a last-minute “anti-invitation” (maybe it’s because she called Krista a gold-digger, but Krista totally deserved it, and it was mostly a joke anyway). Effie declines, but then remembers a beloved childhood treasure is still hidden in the house. Her only chance to retrieve it is to break into Greenoaks while everyone is busy celebrating. As Effie sneaks around the house, hiding under tables and peeping through trapdoors, she realizes the secrets Greenoaks holds aren’t just in the dusty passageways and hidden attics she grew up exploring. Watching how her sister, brother, and dad behave when they think no one is looking, Effie overhears conversations, makes discoveries, and begins to see her family in a new light. Then she runs into Joe—the love of her life, who long ago broke her heart, and who’s still as handsome and funny as ever—and even more truths emerge. But will Effie act on these revelations? Will she stay hidden or step out into the party and take her place with her family? And truthfully, what did she really come back to Greenoaks for? Over the course of one blowout party, Effie realizes that she must be honest with herself and confront her past before she’ll ever be able to face her future.
Author: Michel Faber
Publisher: Hogarth
ISBN: 0553418858
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 466
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Book Description
A monumental, genre-defying novel that David Mitchell calls "Michel Faber’s second masterpiece," The Book of Strange New Things is a masterwork from a writer in full command of his many talents. It begins with Peter, a devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Bea. Peter becomes immersed in the mysteries of an astonishing new environment, overseen by an enigmatic corporation known only as USIC. His work introduces him to a seemingly friendly native population struggling with a dangerous illness and hungry for Peter’s teachings—his Bible is their “book of strange new things.” But Peter is rattled when Bea’s letters from home become increasingly desperate: typhoons and earthquakes are devastating whole countries, and governments are crumbling. Bea’s faith, once the guiding light of their lives, begins to falter. Suddenly, a separation measured by an otherworldly distance, and defined both by one newly discovered world and another in a state of collapse, is threatened by an ever-widening gulf that is much less quantifiable. While Peter is reconciling the needs of his congregation with the desires of his strange employer, Bea is struggling for survival. Their trials lay bare a profound meditation on faith, love tested beyond endurance, and our responsibility to those closest to us. Marked by the same bravura storytelling and precise language that made The Crimson Petal and the White such an international success, The Book of Strange New Things is extraordinary, mesmerizing, and replete with emotional complexity and genuine pathos.
