Résultats de recherche de titre
Articles 21 à 40 sur 1547
Dixon, Descending: A Novel
Par Karen Outen. 2024
A powerful, heart-wrenching debut novel about ambition, survival, and our responsibility toward one another Dixon was once an Olympic-level runner.…
But he missed the team by two-tenths of a second, and ever since that pain decades ago, he hasn&’t allowed a goal to consume him. But when his charming older brother, Nate, suggests that they attempt to be the first Black American men to summit Mount Everest, Dixon can&’t refuse. The brothers are determined to prove something—to themselves and to each other. Dixon interrupts his orderly life as a school psychologist, leaving behind disapproving friends, family, and one particularly fragile student, Marcus. Once on the mountain, they are met with extreme weather conditions, oxygen deprivation, and precarious terrain. But as much as they&’ve prepared for this, Mt. Everest is always fickle. And in one devastating moment, Dixon&’s world is upended. Dixon returns home and attempts to resume his job, but things have shifted: for him and for the students he left behind when he chose Mt. Everest. Ultimately, Dixon must confront the truth of what happened on the mountain and come to terms with who can and cannot be saved. DIXON, DESCENDING offers us a captivating, shattering portrait of the ways we&’re reshaped by our decisions—and what it takes to angle ourselves, once again, toward hope.The Summer Without Men: A Novel
Par Siri Hustvedt. 2011
FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WHAT I LOVED'An astoundingly joyful read . . . a book that shines with…
intellectual curiosity and emotional integrity' Guardian'By turns funny, moving and erudite, playfully reminding us of a contemporary Jane Austen' Daily MailAfter Mia Fredricksen's husband of thirty years asks for a pause - so he can indulge his infatuation with a young French colleague - she cracks up (briefly), rages (deeply), then decamps to her prairie childhood home.There, gradually, she is drawn into the lives of those around her: her mother's circle of feisty widows; the young woman next door; and the diabolical teenage girls in her poetry class. By the end of the summer without men, Mia knows what's worth fighting for - and on whose terms. Provocative, mordant, and fiercely intelligent, this is a gloriously vivacious tragi-comedy about women and girls, love and marriage, and the age-old war between the sexes.A rich and intelligent meditation on female identity, written in beguiling lyrical prose . . . heady and intoxicating' Sunday TimesPRAISE FOR SIRI HUSTVEDT:'Hustvedt is that rare artist, a writer of high intelligence, profound sensuality and a less easily definable capacity for which the only word I can find is wisdom' Salman Rushdie'One of our finest novelists' Oliver Sacks'Reading a Hustvedt novel is like consuming the best of David Lynch' Financial Times'Few contemporary writers are as satisfying and stimulating to read as Siri Hustvedt' Washington PostClover Hendry's Day Off
Par Beth Morrey. 2024
A hilarious and empowering perimenopausal Ferris Bueller&’s Day Off, about Clover Hendry, 46, and the day she decides to stop keeping…
the plates spinning, say F@#! it all, and finally get hers.Today is not the day to mess with Clover Hendry. Clover hasn&’t said &“No&” a day in her life. Until today. Normally a woman who tips her hairdresser even when the cut is hideous, is endlessly patient with her horrendous mother, and says yes every time her boss asks her to work late—today, things are going to be very different. Because Clover is taking the day off. Today, she&’s going to do and say whatever she likes, even if it means her whole life unravels.What made Clover change her ways? Why doesn&’t she care anymore? There&’s more to this day than meets the eye.Clover Hendry's Day Off is a joyful, raging, galvanizing story about putting life on pause, pleasing yourself, and getting your own back. Whatever it takes. Because when Clover stops caring, she can start living.Someone Else's Shoes: A Novel
Par Jojo Moyes. 2023
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!&“Very few authors have the power to make you laugh on one page and cry on…
the next. Moyes is one of them.&” —The New York TimesA story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances, this is the new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and The Giver of StarsWho are you when you are forced to walk in someone else&’s shoes?Nisha Cantor lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope--she doesn&’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in.That&’s because Sam Kemp – in the bleakest point of her life – has accidentally taken Nisha&’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag--she&’s struggling to keep herself and her family afloat. When she tries on Nisha&’s six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, the resulting jolt of confidence that makes her realize something must change—and that thing is herself.Full of Jojo Moyes&’ signature humor, brilliant storytelling, and warmth, Someone Else&’s Shoes is a story about how just one little thing can suddenly change everything.The World Wasn't Ready for You: Stories
Par Justin C. Key. 2023
A Best in Fiction Book for 2023Black Mirror meets Get Out in this gripping story collection reminiscent of the work…
of Octavia E. Butler, which deftly blends science fiction, horror, and fantasy to examine issues of race, class, and prejudice—an electrifying, oftentimes heartbreaking debut from an extraordinary new voice.Justin C. Key has long been obsessed with monsters. Reading R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps as a kid, he imagined himself battling monsters and mayhem to a triumphant end. But when watching Scream 2, in which the movie’s only Black couple is promptly killed off, he realized that the Black and Brown characters in his favorite genre were almost always the victim or villain—if they were portrayed at all.In The World Wasn’t Ready for You, Key expands and subverts the horror genre to expertly explore issues of race, class, prejudice, love, exclusion, loneliness, and what it means to be a person in the world, while revealing the horrifying nature inherent in all of us. In the opening story, “The Perfection of Theresa Watkins,” a sci-fi love story turned nightmare, a husband uses new technology to download the consciousness of his recently deceased Black wife into the body of a white woman. In “Spider King,” an inmate agrees to participate in an experimental medical study offered to Black prisoners in exchange for early release, only to find his body reacting with disturbing symptoms. And in the title story, a father tries to protect his son, teaching him how to navigate a prejudiced world that does not understand him and sees him as a threat.The World Wasn’t Ready for You is a gripping, provocative, and distinctly original collection that demonstrates Key’s remarkable literary gifts—a skill at crafting science fiction stories equaled by an ability to sculpt characters and narrative—as well as his utterly fresh take on how genre can be used to delight, awe, frighten, and ultimately challenge our perceptions. Wildly imaginative and powerfully resonant, it introduces an unforgettable new voice in fiction.Flipping Boxcars: A Novel
Par Cedric The Entertainer. 2023
The first novel from one of the original Kings of Comedy, Cedric “The Entertainer,” an engaging and entertaining crime caper…
that is a valentine to close-knit black families and tightly woven communities struggling to get by during the Depression and World War II. Babe is a charismatic and widely loved man, a gambler with a gift for gab that often gets him out of tricky situations. He’s also a dreamer, something he shares with his patient and loving wife, Rosie. They both yearn for financial stability and see the land they own as insurance for future generations. But when Babe and a few comrades enlist in a scheme that improbably falls apart, he endangers the little security the family has. On the verge of losing everything, what’s a family man to do?If you’re a gambler like Babe, you double down and risk it all for one big score—this time, a plan involving railroad boxcars.Will Babe succeed? Will Rosie continue to support her husband? Are the Feds on to his make-or-break scheme?Flipping Boxcars is Cedric “The Entertainer” at his most engaging best—a charming, fast-paced novel that pays homage to his beloved grandfather and a generation past, anchored by rich, multi-dimensional characters and oozing with irresistible charm.Loyalty
Par Lisa Scottoline. 2023
#1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline presents Loyalty, an emotional, action-packed epic of love and justice, set during the rise of…
the Mafia in Sicily. Loyalty can save a soul—or destroy one. Franco Fiorvanti is a handsome lemon grower toiling on the estate of a baron. He dreams of owning his own grove, but the rigid class system of Sicily thwarts his ambition. Determined to secure a better future, Franco will do anything to prove his loyalty to the baron. But when the baron asks him to kidnap a little boy named Dante, Franco makes a decision that will change his life—and even the history of Sicily—forever. Gaetano Catalano is an idealistic young lawyer whose devotion to justice is tantamount to a calling. He&’s a member of the Beati Paoli, a real-life secret society of aristocrats who investigate crime in Palermo, a city riddled with graft. Gaetano sets out to find the boy and punish the kidnapper, but his mission leads him to a darker place than he had ever imagined. Meanwhile, Mafalda Pancari is a new mother rejoicing at the birth of her daughter, Lucia, when disaster strikes. And Alfredo D&’Antonio is a reclusive goatherd under constant threat of being discovered as a Jew. How the lives of these unforgettable characters collide makes Loyalty an epic tale of good versus evil, as the story twists and turns to its monumental showdown. Readers will be transported to the dramatic and ruggedly beautiful island of Sicily, the jewel of the Mediterranean, where lush lemon groves and mouth-watering cuisine contrast with a turbulent history of colonization and corruption. Scottoline brings her decades of thriller writing to historical fiction, creating in Loyalty a singular novel that no reader will be able to put down.The Singularity (Literature in Translation Series)
Par Balsam Karam, Saskia Vogel. 2021
Lyrical and devastating, The Singularity is a breathtaking study of grief, migration, and motherhood from one of Sweden’s most exciting…
contemporary novelists.In an unnamed coastal city filled with refugees, the mother of a displaced family calls out her daughter’s name as she wanders the cliffside road where the child once worked. The mother searches and searches until, spent from grief, she throws herself into the sea, leaving her other children behind. Bearing witness to the suicide is another woman—on a business trip, with a swollen belly that later gives birth to a stillborn baby. In the wake of her pain, the second woman remembers other losses—of a language, a country, an identity—when once, her family fled a distant war.Balsam Karam weaves between both narratives in this formally ambitious novel and offers a fresh approach to language and aesthetic as she decenters a white European gaze. Her English-language debut, The Singularity is a powerful exploration of loss, history, and memory.Bluebird: A Novel
Par Genevieve Graham. 2022
A dazzling novel set during the Great War and postwar Prohibition about a young nurse, a soldier, and a family…
secret that binds them together for generations to come—from USA TODAY and repeat #1 bestselling author Genevieve Graham.Present day Cassie Simmons, a museum curator, is enthusiastic about solving mysteries from the past, and she has a personal interest in the history of the rumrunners who ferried illegal booze across the Detroit River during Prohibition. So when a cache of whisky labeled Bailey Brothers&’ Best is unearthed during a local home renovation, Cassie hopes to find the answers she&’s been searching for about the legendary family of bootleggers... 1918 Corporal Jeremiah Bailey of the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company is tasked with planting mines in the tunnels beneath enemy trenches. After Jerry is badly wounded in an explosion, he finds himself in a Belgium field hospital under the care of Adele Savard, one of Canada&’s nursing sisters, nicknamed &“Bluebirds&” for their blue gowns and white caps. As Jerry recovers, he forms a strong connection with Adele, who is from a place near his hometown of Windsor, along the Detroit River. In the midst of war, she&’s a welcome reminder of home, and when Jerry is sent back to the front, he can only hope that he&’ll see his bluebird again. By war&’s end, both Jerry and Adele return home to Windsor, scarred by the horrors of what they endured overseas. When they cross paths one day, they have a chance to start over. But the city is in the grip of Prohibition, which brings exciting opportunities as well as new dangerous conflicts that threaten to destroy everything they have fought for. Pulled from the pages of history, Bluebird is a compelling, luminous novel about the strength of the human spirit and the power of love to call us home.The third volume of a celebrated translation of the classic Chinese novelThis is the third volume in David Roy's celebrated…
translation of one of the most famous and important novels in Chinese literature. The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P’ing Mei is an anonymous sixteenth-century work that focuses on the domestic life of Hsi-men Ch’ing, a corrupt, upwardly mobile merchant in a provincial town, who maintains a harem of six wives and concubines. The novel, known primarily for its erotic realism, is also a landmark in the development of the narrative art form—not only from a specifically Chinese perspective but in a world-historical context.Written during the second half of the sixteenth century and first published in 1618, The Plum in the Golden Vase is noted for its surprisingly modern technique. With the possible exception of The Tale of Genji (ca. 1010) and Don Quixote (1605, 1615), there is no earlier work of prose fiction of equal sophistication in world literature. Although its importance in the history of Chinese narrative has long been recognized, the technical virtuosity of the author, which is more reminiscent of the Dickens of Bleak House, the Joyce of Ulysses, or the Nabokov of Lolita than anything in earlier Chinese fiction, has not yet received adequate recognition. This is partly because all of the existing European translations are either abridged or based on an inferior recension of the text. This translation and its annotation aim to faithfully represent and elucidate all the rhetorical features of the original in its most authentic form and thereby enable the Western reader to appreciate this Chinese masterpiece at its true worth.Replete with convincing portrayals of the darker side of human nature, it should appeal to anyone interested in a compelling story, compellingly told.Whatever Gets You through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments
Par Andrei Codrescu. 2011
An irreverent and deeply funny retelling of the Arabian Nights"I fear each passing night that I will not receive my…
maintenance dose of suspense, and then I will cease to exist."—Whatever Gets You through the NightWhatever Gets You through the Night is an irreverent and deeply funny retelling of the Arabian Nights and a wildly inspired exploration of the timeless art of storytelling. Award-winning writer Andrei Codrescu reimagines how Sheherezade saved Baghdad's virgins and her own life through a heroic feat of storytelling—one that kept the Persian king Sharyar hanging in agonizing narrative and erotic suspense for 1001 nights. For Sheherezade, the end of either suspense or curiosity means death, but Codrescu keeps both alive in this entertaining tale of how she learned to hold a king in thrall, setting with her endless invention an unsurpassable example for all storytellers across the ages. Liberated and mischievous, Codrescu's Sheherezade is as charming as she is shrewd—and so is the story Codrescu tells.The Tatami Galaxy: A Novel
Par Tomihiko Morimi. 2008
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE*An unfulfilled college student hurtles through four parallel realities to explore the what-might've-been and the…
what-should-never-be in this Groundhog Day meets The Midnight Library–esque novel from one of Japan’s most popular authors.Our protagonist, an unnamed junior at a prestigious university in Kyoto, is on the verge of dropping out. After rebelling against the dictatorial jock president of the film club, he and his worst and only friend, the diabolical creep Ozu, are personas non grata on campus. For two years, our protagonist has made all the wrong decisions, and now he's about to make another mistake. He and Ozu are preparing for revenge—a fireworks attack at the film club's welcoming party for new members. Then, a chance encounter with a self-proclaimed god sets the confused and distraught young man on a new course. Destiny will bring him together with Akashi, the blunt but charming sophomore he has a crush on—if he’s brave enough to make a move. Yet our protagonist cannot get beyond his profound disillusionment and the moment is lost. But what if there's a universe where he did join the club of his dreams, ditched Ozu for good, and was confident enough to get the girl? A realm of possibility opens up for our protagonist as time rewinds, and from the four-and-a-half-mat tatami floor of his dorm room, he is plunged into a series of adventures that will take him to four parallel universes. In each universe, he is given the opportunity to start over as a freshman, in search of a rose-colored campus life.The inspiration behind the much-loved anime series, Tomihiko Morimi's contemporary classic is a fantastic journey through time and space, where a half-eaten castella cake, a photograph from Rome, and a giant cavity in a wisdom tooth hold the keys to self-discovery. A time-traveling romp that speaks to everyone who has wondered what if, The Tatami Galaxy will win readers’ hearts over . . . and over . . . and over again.The Tatami Time Machine Blues: A Novel
Par Tomihiko Morimi. 2020
In the boiling heat of summer, a broken remote control for an air conditioner threatens life as we know it…
in this reality-bending, time-slipping sequel to The Tatami Galaxy. During a scorching August in Kyoto, our protagonist and his worst friend, Ozu, are locked in a glaring contest in a four-and-a-half-tatami-mat room. Ozu has spilled Coke on the air conditioner’s remote control—the only AC in Shimogamo Yusuisuiso, their famously shabby sweatbox of an apartment building. Vengeful and despairing, our protagonist discusses countermeasures with his secret crush, the reliably blunt Akashi, when Tamura, a strange young man with a bad haircut, appears.Tamura claims to be a time traveler from 25 years in the future, and shows off the time machine he uses to travel. Our protagonist has a brilliant idea: the sweetest revenge would be to go back one day in time and retrieve the functioning remote control. His simple fix is complicated by Ozu and several others who are also eager to take a ride back in time. But in attempting to alter the past, our protagonist foresees the world's extinction. Even more troublingly, Akashi mentions she’s bringing someone to the upcoming bonfire . . . and it's not him. Only one thing remains certain: it's going to be a very long month.Obliteration? Salvation? Coca-Cola? Castella cake? What does the time machine hold for our (not quite) heroes? It all depends on which one gets there first.Translated from the Japanese by Emily BalistrieriStone Yard Devotional
Par Charlotte Wood. 2023
THE NEW NOVEL BY THE STELLA PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE WEEKEND AND THE NATURAL WAY OF THINGSA book of the…
year for the Sydney Morning Herald and ABCA fearless exploration of forgiveness, grief and the complicated beauty of female friendship'Both profound and addictively entertaining. I loved it' CLARE CHAMBERS, bestselling author of Small Pleasures'A masterful novel of quiet force'GUARDIAN 'Beautiful, strange and otherworldly' PAULA HAWKINS, bestselling author of A Slow Fire Burning'The consistently brilliant Wood delivers yet again'SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 'It's remarkable. I'm still trying to figure out how she pulled it off. The best thing she's done'TIM WINTON, author of The Shepherd's Hut'Magnificent and radical . . . It gripped me from the opening line to the very last'AGE'No words can quite convey how much I loved this book'KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of Booth'Extraordinary . . . a stunning work of fiction from a major writer who keeps getting better'AUSTRALIAN'Subtly powerful and utterly engrossing' CLAIRE FULLER, bestselling author of Unsettled Ground'It extends and deepens Wood's already remarkable achievements as a novelist in powerful and often profound ways'SATURDAY PAPERBurnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to the place she grew up, taking refuge in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Australian outback. She doesn't believe in God, or know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive existence almost by accident.But disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signalling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who disappeared decades before, presumed murdered. And finally, a troubling visitor plunges the narrator further back into her past.PRAISE FOR CHARLOTTE WOOD'S THE WEEKEND A Sunday Times 'Best Book for Summer 2021'A Times, Observer, Independent, Daily Express and Good Housekeeping Book of the Year'So great I am struggling to find the words to do it justice . . . Wood is an agonisingly gifted writer. I am now going to read all her other books'MARIAN KEYES'A rare pleasure'SUNDAY TIMES'A perfect, funny, insightful novel about women, friendship and ageing'NINA STIBBE'Glorious . . . Charlotte Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout'GUARDIAN'Riveting'ELIZABETH DAY'Triumphantly brings to life the honest inner lives of women'INDEPENDENT'A lovely, lively, intelligent, funny book'TESSA HADLEY'These women are so alive on the page, it is impossible not to feel a kinship and intimacy with each of them'DAILY EXPRESS'Hypnotic and profoundly unsettling . . . Masterful'ROSAMUND LUPTONThe Shell Collector: Stories
Par Anthony Doerr. 2011
The "perilously beautiful" (Boston Globe) first story collection by the author of the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning #1 New York Times…
bestseller All The Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land.The exquisitely crafted stories in Anthony Doerr’s debut collection take readers from the African Coast to the pine forests of Montana to the damp moors of Lapland, charting a vast physical and emotional landscape. Doerr explores the human condition in all its varieties—metamorphosis, grief, fractured relationships, and slowly mending hearts—conjuring nature in both its beautiful abundance and crushing power. Some of the characters in these stories contend with hardships; some discover unique gifts; all are united by their ultimate deference to the ravishing universe outside themselves.The Awakening (Foundations of Feminist Fiction)
Par Kate Chopin. 2022
Now recognised as a pioneering exploration of gender freedom, from an era when female agency was rare and shocking.Written in…
the late Victorian era, The Awakening features a young woman who flings aside the norms of society and rejects her role as wife and mother. She abandons her family for a hedonistic and contrarian lifestyle before eventually committing suicide. The novel deals with the issues of interracial marriage and contains passages of overt sexuality, both of which contributed to the widespread outcry upon its original publication in 1899. Today it is seen as a portent of the future and admired for its direct and naturalistic style.Flame Tree 451 presents a new series, The Foundations of Feminist Fiction. The early 1900s saw a quiet revolution in literature previously dominated by male adventure heroes. Both men and women moved beyond the norms of the male gaze to write from a different gender perspective, sometimes with female protagonists, but also expressing the universal freedom to write on any subject whatsoever. Each book features a brand new biography and a glossary of literary terms.All the Little Bird-Hearts: A Novel
Par Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow. 2023
&“A poetic debut which masterfully intertwines themes of familial love, friendship, class, prejudice and trauma with psychological acuity and wit.&” ─…
The 2023 Booker Prize JudgesI lived for and loved a bird-heart that summer; I only knew it afterwards. Sunday Forrester does things more carefully than most people. On certain days, she must eat only white food; she drinks only carbonated beverages; she avoids clocks. It's 1988, before autism was widely diagnosed. Sunday has an old etiquette handbook that guides her through confusing social situations, and to escape, she turns to her treasury of Sicilian folklore. The one thing very much out of her control is Dolly, her clever, headstrong teenage daughter, now on the cusp of leaving their home in the Lake District of England. When the glamourous Vita and Rollo move in next door, the couple disarm Sunday with their charm, and proceed to deliciously break just about every rule in Sunday's book. Soon they are spending loads of time together, and Sunday feels acknowledged like never before. But underneath Vita and Rollo's allure lies something else, something darker. For Sunday has precisely what Vita has always wanted for herself: a daughter of her own. A page-turning psychological drama, All the Little Bird-Hearts is an extraordinary, often witty glimpse into the mind of an autistic woman─and a remarkable debut by an author who is herself autistic. It is also an astute portrait of a woman coming to terms with the meaning of love, of motherhood, and of authenticity, and a poignant reminder about why accepting ourselves can be so freeing.The Sense of Wonder: A Novel
Par Matthew Salesses. 2023
From the author of PEN/Faulkner finalist Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear and Craft in the Real World comes a "a smart, very meta…
take" (Kirkus Reviews) on the ways Asian Americans navigate the thorny worlds of sports and entertainment when everything is stacked against them. An Asian American basketball star walks into a gym. No one recognizes him, but everyone stares anyway. It is the start of a joke but what is the punchline? When Won Lee, the first Asian American in the NBA, stuns the world in a seven-game winning streak, the global media audience dubs it &“The Wonder&”—much to Won&’s chagrin. Meanwhile, Won struggles to get attention from his coach, his peers, his fans, and most importantly, his hero, Powerball!, who also happens to be Won&’s teammate and the captain. Covering it all is sportswriter Robert Sung, who writes about Won's stardom while grappling with his own missed hoops opportunities as well as his place as an Asian American in media. And to witness it all is Carrie Kang, a big studio producer, who juggles a newfound relationship with Won while attempting to bring K-drama to an industry not known to embrace anything new or different.The Sense of Wonder follows Won and Carrie as they chronicle the human and professional tensions exacerbated by injustices and fight to be seen and heard on some of the world&’s largest stages. An incredibly funny and heart-rending dive into race and our &“collective imagination that lays bare our limitations before blasting joyfully past them&” (Catherine Chung). This is the work of a gifted storyteller at the top of his game.USA Today's 20 Most Anticipated Books of WinterSalon's 22 Books We're Looking Forward to in 2023Philadelphia Inquirer's Best New Books to Kick Off 2023Los Angeles Times's Best Books of JanuaryEsquire's January 2023 Book Club Pick Vulture's 30 Books We Can't Wait to Read This WinterChicago Review of Books's 12 Must-Read Books of January 2023The Orange County Register's Most Anticipated of 2023 Powell's Picks of the Month Book Culture's Most Anticipated Books of January Apple Books's Staff Picks of JanuaryVanity Fair's 8 Books We Can't Stop Talking About This MonthLiterary Hub's Best Book Covers of JanuaryUnsinkable
Par Jenni L Walsh. 2024
&“AN INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER&”The Titanic was only the beginning. What she survived has become legend. Inspired by true stories of survival…
and resilience, Unsinkable entwines the lives of two women, one from World War 1 and another from World War 2, as they face adversity and take hold of the second chances given to them.Violet Jessop is Miss Unsinkable.After her mother becomes too ill to work, the responsibility to provide for the family falls to Violet as the oldest of nine. When the world enters the Great War, she serves as a nurse, helping men who could very well be her brothers. Working as a stewardess and wartime nurse, Violet not only survives a shipwreck but also two sinkings, one on the infamous Titanic. No one can understand why she would return to sea, but something keeps drawing Violet back to the tumultuous waters, where she struggles to put the tragedies of her past behind her and pursue a life and love all her own.Daphne has survived calamity of her own.Daphne Chaundanson grows up as an unwanted child after her mother died in a tragedy. She throws herself into education, collecting languages like candy in a desperate attempt to finally earn her father's approval. When the Special Operations Executive invites her to be an agent in France in World War II, her childhood of anonymity and her love of languages make her the perfect fit. She sees it as an opportunity to help the country she loves and live up to her father's expectations. But the dangers of war challenge Daphne in ways she never could have expected, and the secrets from her own past must be faced for her to truly have a future beyond the conflict--if she can survive it.Inspired by true stories of Violet Jessop and the thirty-nine women of the Special Operations Executive. Two unsinkable women. Two stories of survival, family, and finding one's own happiness. One connection that reshapes both their lives forever.Historical, stand-alone novelThemes of: true events, second chances, and happy endingsBook length: approximately 103,000 wordsIncludes discussion questions for book clubsThe Invitation
Par Barb Johnson. 2009
“[A] gorgeous debut collection…heartbreakingly poignant…if a short story is a slice of life, then the sum of this collection shows…
the power of a moment, of how a whole life is ultimately comprised of its slices.” — Powells.com“In this book, the music is earned by muscular language, empathy and emotional courage. The writing alone is a rare, sweet joy. Like a drop of water from Delia’s leaky faucet, each story in this brilliant collection breaks open in a fit of shine.” — LambdaLiterary.org“Johnson is pitch-perfect in her spare yet lyrical descriptions, especially those of male-female interactions, how going to war changes soldiers, and how love can be damaged or destroyed, as Delia describes her affair with Maggie as ‘a tear in my soul that just won’t heal.’ An insightful literary gem.” — Booklist“Barb Johnson’s beautiful and touching stories stirred up emotions in me that few books ever have…I hate to admit it, [but] I actually cried over a pig in one of the stories, and I used to work in a meatpacking plant!” — Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff“What a pitch-perfect, utterly original, dazzlingly flexible narrative voice Barb Johnson has. Her collection of gritty, sad, funny stories from the Gulf Coast, More of This World or Maybe Another, is a truly exciting debut.” — Robert Olen Butler, Pulitizer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain and Severance“Precise and gorgeous language...A wonderful sense of humor..Pathos made over into something much more effective--a vision of all these people just doing the best they can. These are stunning stories...the kind that reveal, enlarge, and make living seem worth the trouble.” — Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina“In this wickedly fine debut, Barb Johnson proves herself a master of the short story. Both the familiar and the extraordinary come to life on every page, and her characters will haunt you for a very long time.” — Joseph Boyden, author of Through Black Spruce, winner of Canada’s 2008 Giller Prize“This debut is elemental, precise, and charged with ragged, intimate grace. As the collection’s heroine Delia says to her lover, I would say to all readers: ‘Come see.’” — David Schickler, author of Kissing in Manhattan