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The Quotable Thoreau
Par Jeffrey S. Cramer. 2011
The most comprehensive and authoritative collection of Thoreau quotations ever publishedFew writers are more quotable than Henry David Thoreau. His…
books, essays, journals, poems, letters, and unpublished manuscripts contain an inexhaustible treasure of epigrams and witticisms, from the famous ("The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation") to the obscure ("Who are the estranged? Two friends explaining") and the surprising ("I would exchange my immortality for a glass of small beer this hot weather"). The Quotable Thoreau, the most comprehensive and authoritative collection of Thoreau quotations ever assembled, gathers more than 2,000 memorable passages from this iconoclastic American author, social reformer, environmentalist, and self-reliant thinker. Including Thoreau's thoughts on topics ranging from sex to solitude, manners to miracles, government to God, life to death, and everything in between, the book captures Thoreau's profundity as well as his humor ("If misery loves company, misery has company enough"). Drawing primarily on The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau, published by Princeton University Press, The Quotable Thoreau is thematically arranged, fully indexed, richly illustrated, and thoroughly documented. For the student of Thoreau, it will be invaluable. For those who think they know Thoreau, it will be a revelation. And for the reader seeking sheer pleasure, it will be a joy.Over 2,000 quotations on more than 150 subjectsRichly illustrated with historic photographs and drawingsThoreau on himself and his contemporariesThoreau's contemporaries on ThoreauBiographical time lineAppendix of misquotations and misattributionsFully indexedSuggestions for further readingDostoevsky: A Writer in His Time
Par Joseph Frank. 2009
A magnificent one-volume abridgement of one of the greatest literary biographies of our timeJoseph Frank's award-winning, five-volume Dostoevsky is widely…
recognized as the best biography of the writer in any language—and one of the greatest literary biographies of the past half-century. Now Frank's monumental, 2,500-page work has been skillfully abridged and condensed in this single, highly readable volume with a new preface by the author. Carefully preserving the original work's acclaimed narrative style and combination of biography, intellectual history, and literary criticism, Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time illuminates the writer's works—from his first novel Poor Folk to Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov—by setting them in their personal, historical, and above all ideological context. More than a biography in the usual sense, this is a cultural history of nineteenth-century Russia, providing both a rich picture of the world in which Dostoevsky lived and a major reinterpretation of his life and work.A history of partition seen through the life and fiction of one of the subcontinent's most important modern writersSaadat Hasan…
Manto (1912-1955) was an established Urdu short story writer and a rising screenwriter in Bombay at the time of India's partition in 1947, and he is perhaps best known for the short stories he wrote following his migration to Lahore in newly formed Pakistan. Today Manto is an acknowledged master of twentieth-century Urdu literature, and his fiction serves as a lens through which the tragedy of partition is brought sharply into focus. In The Pity of Partition, Manto's life and work serve as a prism to capture the human dimension of sectarian conflict in the final decades and immediate aftermath of the British raj.Ayesha Jalal draws on Manto's stories, sketches, and essays, as well as a trove of his private letters, to present an intimate history of partition and its devastating toll. Probing the creative tension between literature and history, she charts a new way of reconnecting the histories of individuals, families, and communities in the throes of cataclysmic change. Jalal brings to life the people, locales, and events that inspired Manto's fiction, which is characterized by an eye for detail, a measure of wit and irreverence, and elements of suspense and surprise. In turn, she mines these writings for fresh insights into everyday cosmopolitanism in Bombay and Lahore, the experience and causes of partition, the postcolonial transition, and the advent of the Cold War in South Asia.The first in-depth look in English at this influential literary figure, The Pity of Partition demonstrates the revelatory power of art in times of great historical rupture.Patricia Highsmith: The New York Years, 1941–1950
Par Patricia Highsmith. 2023
'My secrets - the secrets that everyone has - are here, in black and white.'Before Alfred Hitchcock adapted her debut…
novel, Strangers on a Train, for the big screen; before Thomas Ripley snaked his way into the canon of psychological suspense; before Carol became a cult classic of romantic obsession, who was Patricia Highsmith?Beginning in 1941 and encompassing Highsmith's adventurous twenties, The New York Years is an intimate self-portrait of a young artist, reading voraciously and honing her craft, intertwined with scenes from her dizzying social life, rife with sleepless nights spent in the queer bars of Greenwich Village.This condensed edition of Highsmith's monumental Diaries and Notebooks offers all the pleasures of her fiction, along with an unparalleled insight into the life, mind and times of this enigmatic, iconic, trailblazing author. 'One of the most observant and ecstatic accounts . . . about being young and alive in New York City' New York TimesWild Women and Books: Bibliophiles, Bluestockings, and Prolific Pens
Par Brenda Knight. 2006
A provocative and inspiring exploration of women writers from the first writers in history to today’s greats—with a new introduction…
by Ntozake Shange.Wild Women and Books celebrates some of the most revered and radical women writers of history. Beginning with the first recorded writer of either gender, Enheduanna of Sumeria, and ending with acclaimed contemporary writers like Toni Morrison and J.K. Rowling, this is a must-read for those who must read.Brenda Knight brings more than a hundred female authors to life for today's readers—from Aphra Ben to Zora Neal Hurston and from Ann Rice to the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Knight recounts their tumultuous paths to literary acclaim in chapters such as Literary First Ladies; Ink in Their Veins; Banned, Blacklisted, and Arrested; and Women Whose Books Are Loved Too Much.From religious transcribers and political dissidents to erotic playwrights and romantic poets, no subject or literary form is left untouched. In honor of those women whose pens pioneered, persevered, and proved that the female voice is brilliant, Knight invites you to explore the literary legacy of women.One of a Kind: The Life of Sydney Taylor
Par Richard Michelson. 2024
For fans of All-of-a-Kind Family, here is the true story of how Sarah Brenner, a poor girl from New York…
City&’s Lower East Side, became Sydney Taylor: dancer, actress, and successful children&’s book author.Sarah Brenner might have come from an all-of-a-kind family (five sisters who all dressed alike), but she was always one of a kind. Growing up in a Jewish immigrant family on New York&’s impoverished Lower East Side, Sarah loved visiting the library, celebrating holidays with her family, and taking free dance classes at the Henry Street Settlement. But she was always aware of things that weren&’t fair—whether it was that women couldn&’t vote, or how girls were treated in her school, or that her parents had had to leave Europe because they were Jewish. When she grew up, Sarah changed her name to Sydney and became an actress and a dancer, but she never forgot the importance of fighting unfairness, whether it was anti-Semitism at her job or the low wages of workers. And when her daughter complained that it wasn&’t fair that there were no books about Jewish children like her, Sydney put pen to paper and wrote a one-of-a-kind children&’s book.From well-known Jewish children&’s author Richard Michelson, this is the story of how Sarah became Sydney and how she showed children the joy of seeing their culture reflected on the page.The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells
Par Rebecca Rego Barry. 2024
The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells is the first biography of one of the &“lost ladies&” of detective fiction who wrote…
more than eighty mysteries and hundreds of other works between the 1890s and the 1940s.Carolyn Wells (1862–1942) excelled at writing country house and locked-room mysteries for a decade before Agatha Christie entered the scene. In the 1920s, when she was churning out three or more books annually, she was dubbed &“about the biggest thing in mystery novels in the US.&”On top of that, Wells wielded her pen in just about every literary genre, producing several immensely popular children&’s books and young adult novels; beloved anthologies; and countless stories, prose, and poetry for magazines such as Thrilling Detective, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, Harper&’s, and The New Yorker. All told, Wells wrote over 180 books. Some were adapted into silent films, and some became bestsellers. Yet a hundred years later, she has been all but erased from literary history. Why? How?This investigation takes us on a journey to Rahway, New Jersey, where Wells was born and is buried; to New York City&’s Upper West Side, where she spent her final twenty-five years; to the Library of Congress, where Carolyn&’s world-class collection of rare books now resides; and to many other public and private collections where exciting discoveries unfolded.Part biography and part sleuthing narrative, The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells recovers the life and work of a brilliant writer who was considered one of the funniest, most talented women of her time.Diary of an Invasion: The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine
Par Andrey Kurkov. 2022
'Uplifting and utterly defiant' Matt Nixson, Daily Express 'Immediate and important ... This is an insider's account of how an…
ordinary life became extraordinary' Helen Davies, The TimesThis journal of the invasion, a collection of Andrey Kurkov's writings and broadcasts from Kyiv, is a remarkable record of a brilliant writer at the forefront of a 21st-century war. Andrey Kurkov has been a consistent satirical commentator on his adopted country of Ukraine. His most recent work, Grey Bees, is a dark foreshadowing of the devastation in the eastern part of Ukraine in which only two villagers remain in a village bombed to smithereens. The author has lived in Kyiv and in the remote countryside of Ukraine throughout the Russian invasion. He has also been able to fly to European capitals where he has been working to raise money for charities and to address crowded halls. Kurkov has been asked to write for every English newspaper, as also to be interviewed all over Europe. He has become an important voice for his people.Kurkov sees every video and every posted message, and he spends the sleepless nights of continuous bombardment of his city delivering the truth about this invasion to the world.The Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1934–1939: 1934–1939 (The Diaries of Anaïs Nin #2)
Par Anaïs Nin. 1970
The second volume of &“one of the most remarkable diaries in the history of letters&” (Los Angeles Times). Beginning…
with the author&’s arrival in New York, this diary recounts Anaïs Nin&’s work as a psychoanalyst, and is filled with the stories of her analytical patients—as well as her musings over the challenges facing the artist in the modern world. The diary of this remarkably daring and candid woman provides a deeply intimate look inside her mind, as well as a fascinating chapter in her tumultuous life in the latter years of the 1930s.The Great Wave: The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise of the Outsider
Par Michiko Kakutani. 2024
An urgent examination of how disruptive politics, technology, and art are capsizing old assumptions in a great wave of change…
breaking over today&’s world, creating both opportunity and peril—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning critic and author of the New York Times bestseller The Death of Truth. &“In this dazzling and brilliant book, Michiko Kakutani explains the cascading chaos of our era and points to ways that we can regain some stability.&”—Walter Isaacson, author of Elon MuskThe twenty-first century is experiencing a watershed moment defined by chaos and uncertainty, as one emergency cascades into another, underscoring the larger dynamics of change that are fueling instability across the world. Since the global financial crisis of 2008, people have increasingly lost trust in institutions and elites, while seizing upon new digital tools to sidestep traditional gatekeepers. As a result, powerful new voices—once regarded as radical, unorthodox, or marginal—are disrupting the status quo in politics, business, and culture. Meanwhile, social and economic inequalities are stoking populist rage across the world, toxic partisanship is undermining democratic ideals, and the internet and AI have become high-speed vectors for the spread of misinformation. Writing with a critic&’s understanding of cultural trends and a journalist&’s eye for historical detail, Michiko Kakutani looks at the consequences of these new asymmetries of power. She maps the migration of ideas from the margins to the mainstream and explores the growing influence of outsiders—those who have sown chaos and fear (like Donald Trump), and those who have provided inspirational leadership (like Ukraine&’s president Volodymyr Zelensky). At the same time, she situates today&’s multiplying crises in context with those that defined earlier hinge moments in history, from the waning of the Middle Ages to the transition between the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era at the end of the nineteenth century. Kakutani argues that today&’s crises are not only signs of an interconnected globe&’s profound vulnerabilities, but also stress tests pointing to the essential changes needed to survive this tumultuous era and build a more sustainable future.For over three-quarters of a century, the Governor General’s Literary Awards have been awarded annually in a variety of evolving…
categories. Fifteen Governors General have served as their patron. The impressive list continues to grow apace: between 1936 and 2018, the awards recognized 719 books in English and French and have been presented to 580 authors, illustrators, and translators. This beautifully illustrated bilingual compendium presents the biographies of all 580 award laureates, many accompanied by stunning archival portraits. This is the final instalment in Andrew Irvine’s remarkable and comprehensive research into what has become a touchstone of Canada’s literary culture. Together with Canada’s Best and The Governor General’s Literary Awards of Canada: A Bibliography, this work provides readers with a definitive overview of this literary prize. By itself, Canada’s Storytellers is an invaluable reading companion for anyone wanting to be introduced to many of our most influential authors, illustrators, and translators working in both French and English over the past decades. It belongs on the shelf of every enthusiast of Canadian literature. Bilingual edition.Distributed on behalf of the University of Florida College of Journalism and CommunicationsRae O. Weimer founded the University of Florida’s…
first school of journalism, and within one year of his arrival in Gainesville, the school received accreditation. No longer would Florida’s students have to leave the state to pursue dreams of becoming journalists. Just Call Me Rae chronicles the life of the man who pioneered journalism education in Florida and built one of the most innovative journalism and communications programs in the country. Rae grew up in a small Midwestern town where he learned to be resourceful and hardworking, traits that would make him—along with his reputation—the prime candidate to lead UF’s small journalism department. Due to economic hardship, he dropped out of college in his final year, but he knew he was destined to be a newspaperman. He learned everything he could about the profession, taking any job that came his way. Between 1925 and 1940, Rae worked for eleven newspapers in six states, including the Akron Beacon Journal and Cleveland Press in Ohio and the Buffalo Times in New York. The culmination of his newspaper career was his role at the revolutionary and historic PM newspaper in New York City. At PM, Rae rubbed elbows with some of the greatest journalists and writers of his generation, including Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway, Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss), Max Lerner, I. F. “Izzy” Stone, Dashiell Hammett, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Edna Ferber. Rae’s reputation ran ahead of him to Florida, where the state’s newspapers were agitating for upgrading journalism education at UF. Rae might not have had the degrees that other candidates had, but he had the credentials—he was a seasoned newspaperman, a trained newspaper technician, and his years at PM had honed his teaching instinct. UF President J. Hillis Miller agreed to hire Rae, and so would begin the legend of the degreeless dean. Rae re-envisioned journalism at the University of Florida. With his leadership, what had been a three-person department that rarely exceeded twenty students grew into the School of Journalism. He expanded the school to include advertising and radio and television journalism in the curriculum, and by the 1960s UF's School of Journalism was the fastest growing journalism program in the country. In 1968, shortly after Rae retired, the School became the College of Journalism and Communications, and today it is still ranked among the nation’s top journalism programs, with students hired at news organizations across the country, including highly competitive newsrooms in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles. With the communication skills they developed at the college, many pursue careers in public service, politics, law and public relations. This book is an eye-opening chronicle of Rae Weimer’s lasting legacy to journalism in the state of Florida.Distributed by University Press of Florida on behalf of the University of Florida College of Journalism and CommunicationsMy Home Team: A Sportswriter's Life and the Redemptive Power of Small-Town Girls Basketball
Par Dave Kindred. 2023
In this poignant memoir, a legendary sports journalist writes about the team that changed his life: the Morton High School…
Lady Potters basketball team. Dave Kindred has covered dozens of Super Bowls and written about stars like Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods, and Michael Jordan. But a high-school girls basketball team—the Lady Potters of Morton, Illinois—stands apart from the rest. In this moving and intimate story, Kindred writes about his rise to professional success and the changes that brought him back to his hometown late in life. As he dealt with personal hardship, his urge to write sustained him. For years, he has recapped the games of the Lady Potters, including their many runs to state championships. He attended game after game, sitting in the stands and making notes, paid nothing but Milk Duds. And the team and their community were there for him as he lost a grandson to addiction and his wife to long-term illness. Tender and honest, Kindred&’s story reminds readers what sports are really about. He trades in the exhausting spectacle of Super Bowl Sunday for the joy of togetherness, the fire of competition, and the inexhaustible hope for victory tomorrow.The life and times of High Times&’ enigmatic founder Thomas King Forçade, an underground newspaper editor and marijuana kingpin who—between police…
raids, smuggling runs, and outrageous stunts—battled both the US government and fellow radicals.Cover illustration by legendary comics artist Bill Sienkiewicz. At the end of the 1960s, the mysterious Tom Forçade suddenly appeared, insinuating himself into the top echelons of countercultural politics and assuming control of the Underground Press Syndicate, a coalition of newspapers across the country. Weathering government surveillance and harassment, he embarked on a landmark court battle to obtain White House press credentials. But his audacious exploits—pieing Congressional panelists, stealing presidential portraits, and picking fights with other activists—led to accusations that he was an agent provocateur. As the era of protest faded and the dark shadows of Watergate spread, Forçade hoped that marijuana could be the path to cultural and economic revolution. Bankrolled by drug-dealing profits, High Times would be the Playboy of pot, dragging a once-taboo subject into the mainstream. The magazine was a travelogue of globe-trotting adventure, a wellspring of news about &“the business,&” and an overnight success. But High Times soon threatened to become nothing more than the &“hip capitalism&” Forçade had railed against for so long, and he felt his enemies closing in. Assembled from exclusive interviews, archived correspondences, and declassified documents, Agents of Chaos is a tale of attacks on journalism, disinformation campaigns, governmental secrecy, corporatism, and political factionalism. Its triumphs and tragedies mirror the cultural transformations of 1970s America, wrought by forces that continue to clash in the spaces between activism and power.If Not Us, Who?: William Rusher, National Review, and the Conservative Movement
Par David B. Frisk. 2011
If Not Us, Who? is both the story of an architect of the modern conservative movement and a colorful journey through…
a half century of high-level politics. Best known as the longtime publisher of National Review, William Rusher (1923–2011) was more than just a crucial figure in the history of the Right&’s leading magazine. He was a political intellectual, tactician, and strategist who helped shape the historic rise of conservatism. To write If Not Us, Who?, David B. Frisk pored over Rusher&’s voluminous papers at the Library of Congress and interviewed dozens of insiders, including National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr., in addition to Rusher himself. The result is a gripping biography that shines new light on Rusher&’s significance as an observer and an activiast while bringing to life more than a generation&’s worth of political hopes, fears, and controversies. Frisk vividly captures the joys and struggles at National Review, including Rusher&’s complex relationship with the legendary Buckley. Here we see the powerful blend of wit, erudition, dedication, shrewdness, and earnestness that made Rusher an influential figure at NR and an indispensable link between conservatism&’s leading theorists and its political practitioners. &“If not us, who? If not now, when?&”—a maxim often attributed to Ronald Reagan—could have been Rusher&’s motto. In everything he did—publishing National Review, recruiting and advising political candidates, organizing cadres of young conservatives, taking on liberal advocates in a popular television debate program, writing a syndicated column—his objective was to build a movement. His tireless efforts proved essential to conservatism&’s ascendancy, from the pivotal Goldwater campaign through the Reagan era. Largely unexamined until now, Rusher&’s career opens a new window onto the history of the conservative movement. This comprehensive biography reintroduces readers to a remarkable man of thought and action.The Humane Vision of Wendell Berry
Par Mark Mitchell, Nathan Schlueter. 2011
A striking contribution to the conversation that is conservatismWendell Berry—poet, novelist, essayist, critic, farmer—has won the admiration of Americans from…
all walks of life and from across the political spectrum. His writings treat an extraordinary range of subjects, including politics, economics, ecology, farming, work, marriage, religion, and education. But as this enlightening new book shows, such diverse writings are united by a humane vision that finds its inspiration in the great moral and literary tradition of the West.In The Humane Vision of Wendell Berry, Mark T. Mitchell and Nathan Schlueter bring together a distinguished roster of writers to critically engage Berry&’s ideas. The volume features original contributions from Rod Dreher, Anthony Esolen, Allan Carlson, Richard Gamble, Jason Peters, Anne Husted Burleigh, Patrick J. Deneen, Caleb Stegall, Luke Schlueter, Matt Bonzo, Michael Stevens, D. G. Hart, Mark Shiffman, and William Edmund Fahey, as well as a classic piece by Wallace Stegner.Together, these authors situation Berry&’s ideas within the larger context of conservative thought. His vision stands for reality in all its facets and against all reductive &“isms&”—for intellect against intellectualism, individuality against individualism, community against communitarianism, liberty against libertarianism. Wendell Berry calls his readers to live lives of gratitude, responsibility, friendship, and love—notions that, as this important new book makes clear, should be at the heart of a thoughtful and coherent conservatism.Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus: A Mysterious Profile (Mysterious Profiles)
Par Faye Kellerman. 2009
The USA Today–bestselling author details how she became a crime novelist and how she created her acclaimed husband-and-wife detective team.In…
1986, Faye Kellerman introduced LAPD detective Peter Decker and widowed yeshiva teacher Rina Lazarus in her crime novel, The Ritual Bath. The debut won Kellerman the 1987 Macavity Award for Best First Novel and turned into a long-running bestselling series. But how exactly did it all come about?In this autobiographical piece, Kellerman discusses the origins of Decker and Lazarus and answers common questions from readers. Like, how much does she resemble her character, Rina? And how have Peter and Rina evolved? But Kellerman also talks about her own life as an author, mother, and wife. She shares what it’s like being married to a fellow novelist, and how exactly she carved out a place for herself in the world of crime writing.Praise for the Decker and Lazarus Novels“Exceptionally fine suspense.” —San Diego Union-Tribune“Faye Kellerman is a master of mystery.” —The Plain Dealer“Tautly exciting.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review“Reading a good thriller is very much like taking a great vacation: half the fun is getting there. Faye Kellerman is one heck of a tour guide.” —Detroit Free Press“Surprising twists and engaging subplots will keep readers turning the pages to the satisfying conclusion.” —Publishers WeeklyDear Leader: My Escape from North Korea
Par Jang Jin-Sung. 2014
A North Korean poet recounts life among the political elite and his daring escape to freedom in this “powerful, heart-rending”…
memoir (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).As North Korea’s State Poet Laureate, Jang Jin-sung led a charmed life. With food provisions (even as the country suffered through its great famine), a travel pass, access to strictly censored information, and audiences with Kim Jong-il himself, his life in Pyongyang seemed safe and secure. But this privileged existence was about to be shattered. When a strictly forbidden magazine he lent to a friend goes missing, Jang Jin-sung must flee for his life.Never before has a member of the elite described the inner workings of this totalitarian state and its propaganda machine. An astonishing exposé told through the heart-stopping story of Jang Jin-sung’s escape to South Korea, Dear Leader is an “impossibly dramatic story . . . one of the best depictions yet of North Korea’s nightmare” (Publishers Weekly).More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction
Par Elizabeth Wurtzel. 2002
Elizabeth Wurtzel published her memoir of depression, Prozac Nation, to astonishing literary acclaim. A cultural phenomenon by age twenty-six, she…
had fame, money, respect—everything she had always wanted except that one, true thing: happiness.For all of her professional success, Wurtzel felt like a failure. She had lost friends and lovers, every magazine job she'd held, and way too much weight. She couldn't write, and her second book was past due. But when her doctor prescribed Ritalin to help her focus-and boost the effects of her antidepressants—Wurtzel was spared. The Ritalin worked. And worked. The pills became her sugar...the sweetness in the days that have none. Soon she began grinding up the Ritalin and snorting it. Then came the cocaine, then more Ritalin, then more cocaine. Then I need more. I always need more. For all of my life I have needed more...More, Now, Again is the brutally honest, often painful account of Wurtzel's descent into drug addiction. It is also a survival story: How Wurtzel managed to break free of her relationship with Ritalin and learned to love life, and herself, is at the heart of this ultimately uplifting memoir that no reader will soon forget.Mallory: A Mysterious Profile (Mysterious Profiles #11)
Par Carol O'Connell. 2008
The New York Times–bestselling author discusses her crime-solving hacker heroine, &“surely one of the genre&’s oddest and most interesting creations&”…
(Chicago Tribune). When the NYPD detective and sociopath known simply as Mallory made her series debut, John Sandford called her &“one of the most interesting new characters to come along in years.&” A homeless wild child who was taken in by a New York City cop and grew up to follow in his footsteps, she possesses a skill set—including a talent for computer hacking—that allows her to track down her prey like no one else. In this insightful essay, author Carol O&’Connell shares fascinating insights about her origins, her psychology, and her strikingly different sense of right and wrong. &“Mallory is not your usual plucky and generally wholesome mystery solver. Jane Marple would probably cross the street to avoid making eye contact with her.&” —The Washington Post Book World &“Mallory is a marvelous creation.&” —Jonathan Kellerman, New York Times–bestselling author of the Alex Hunter novels