Isabel Allende
I never said I wanted a "happy" life but an interesting one. From separation and loss, I have learned a lot. I have become strong and resilient, as is the case of almost every human being exposed to life and to the world. We don't even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward.
Attribution
October 9, 2020
In last week’s newsletter, I noted that small businesses need our support by doing holiday shopping early --- and supporting local businesses. Here’s a terrific piece from the Los Angeles Times written by Allison Hill. Until February 2020, Allison was the CEO of Vroman’s in Pasadena and Book Soup in L.A. She is now the Executive Director of the American Booksellers Association, a job she assumed on March 1st. She knows bookstores and book selling. So heed her comments on shopping at the places you want to be there for you.
Editorial Content for Is This Anything?
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
In 2003, when my son was a senior at Syracuse University, he invited me to join him at a Jerry Seinfeld performance at that city’s historic Landmark Theatre. On that evening I learned one meaning of the term “painfully funny.” By the time the comic had reached the finale of his roughly hour-long set, my pleasure was mingled with relief that the show was ending because it simply hurt to laugh anymore. Read More
Teaser
Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub “Catch a Rising Star” as a 21-year-old college student in the fall of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. “Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas, the big yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old school accordion folders,” Seinfeld writes. “So I have everything I thought was worth saving from forty-five years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.” For this book, Seinfeld has selected his favorite material, organized decade by decade. Readers will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.
Promo
Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub “Catch a Rising Star” as a 21-year-old college student in the fall of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. “Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas, the big yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old school accordion folders,” Seinfeld writes. “So I have everything I thought was worth saving from forty-five years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.” For this book, Seinfeld has selected his favorite material, organized decade by decade. Readers will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.
About the Book
The first book in 25 years from “one of our great comic minds” (The Washington Post) features Jerry Seinfeld’s best work across five decades in comedy.
Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub “Catch a Rising Star” as a 21 year old college student in the fall of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. “Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation or working it out on my preferred canvas, the big yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old school accordion folders,” Seinfeld writes. “So I have everything I thought was worth saving from forty-five years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.”
For this book, Jerry Seinfeld has selected his favorite material, organized decade by decade. In this “trove of laugh-out-loud one-liners” (Associated Press), you will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.
Audiobook available, read by Jerry Seinfeld
Editorial Content for Next to Last Stand: A Longmire Mystery
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire is called to the Veterans’ Home of Wyoming to investigate the contents of a Florsheim shoebox found in the footlocker of Charley Lee Stillwater, who is dead of an apparent heart attack. It is crammed with stacks of $100 bills amounting to $1 million. Read More
Teaser
One of the most viewed paintings in American history, Custer's Last Fight, copied and distributed by Anheuser-Busch at a rate of over two million copies a year, was destroyed in a fire at the 7th Cavalry Headquarters in Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1946. Or was it? When Charley Lee Stillwater dies of an apparent heart attack at the Wyoming Home for Soldiers & Sailors, Walt Longmire is called in to try and make sense of a piece of a painting and a Florsheim shoebox containing a million dollars, sending the good sheriff on the trail of a dangerous art heist.
Promo
One of the most viewed paintings in American history, Custer's Last Fight, copied and distributed by Anheuser-Busch at a rate of over two million copies a year, was destroyed in a fire at the 7th Cavalry Headquarters in Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1946. Or was it? When Charley Lee Stillwater dies of an apparent heart attack at the Wyoming Home for Soldiers & Sailors, Walt Longmire is called in to try and make sense of a piece of a painting and a Florsheim shoebox containing a million dollars, sending the good sheriff on the trail of a dangerous art heist.
About the Book
The latest novel in the beloved New York Times bestselling Longmire series finds the sheriff chasing down the whereabouts of an iconic American painting.
One of the most viewed paintings in American history, Custer's Last Fight, copied and distributed by Anheuser-Busch at a rate of over two million copies a year, was destroyed in a fire at the 7th Cavalry Headquarters in Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1946. Or was it? When Charley Lee Stillwater dies of an apparent heart attack at the Wyoming Home for Soldiers & Sailors, Walt Longmire is called in to try and make sense of a piece of a painting and a Florsheim shoebox containing a million dollars, sending the good sheriff on the trail of a dangerous art heist.
Audiobook available, read by George Guidall
Editorial Content for What Are You Going Through
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Sigrid Nunez has written multiple award-winning books. Her writings on grief, comedy and friendship cut to the bone, and her new novel, WHAT ARE YOU GOING THROUGH, is no exception.
A female narrator recounts a series of interactions she has had with a mélange of people. She discusses her encounters with an ex-boyfriend, a friend from her college years who is fighting a deadly disease, and an elderly neighbor who is not pleasant to be around. Throughout the book, she mostly just listens, commenting on any observations she has. Read More
Teaser
A woman describes a series of encounters she has with various people in the ordinary course of her life: an ex she runs into by chance at a public forum, an Airbnb owner unsure how to interact with her guests, a stranger who seeks help comforting his elderly mother, a friend of her youth now hospitalized with terminal cancer. In each of these people, the woman finds a common need: the urge to talk about themselves and to have an audience to their experiences. The narrator orchestrates this chorus of voices for the most part as a passive listener, until one of them makes an extraordinary request, drawing her into an intense and transformative experience of her own.
Promo
A woman describes a series of encounters she has with various people in the ordinary course of her life: an ex she runs into by chance at a public forum, an Airbnb owner unsure how to interact with her guests, a stranger who seeks help comforting his elderly mother, a friend of her youth now hospitalized with terminal cancer. In each of these people, the woman finds a common need: the urge to talk about themselves and to have an audience to their experiences. The narrator orchestrates this chorus of voices for the most part as a passive listener, until one of them makes an extraordinary request, drawing her into an intense and transformative experience of her own.
About the Book
The New York Times bestselling, National Book Award-winning author of THE FRIEND brings her singular voice to a story about the meaning of life and death, and the value of companionship.
A woman describes a series of encounters she has with various people in the ordinary course of her life: an ex she runs into by chance at a public forum, an Airbnb owner unsure how to interact with her guests, a stranger who seeks help comforting his elderly mother, a friend of her youth now hospitalized with terminal cancer. In each of these people, the woman finds a common need: the urge to talk about themselves and to have an audience to their experiences. The narrator orchestrates this chorus of voices for the most part as a passive listener, until one of them makes an extraordinary request, drawing her into an intense and transformative experience of her own.
In WHAT ARE YOU GOING THROUGH, Nunez brings wisdom, humor and insight to a novel about human connection and the changing nature of relationships in our times. A surprising story about empathy and the unusual ways one person can help another through hardship, her book offers a moving and provocative portrait of the way we live now.
Audiobook available, read by Hillary Huber
Editorial Content for Earthlings
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
EARTHLINGS is a curious novel --- quaint and quirky at the start, then increasingly bizarre and frightening right up until its horrific and unbelievable end. With sparse language and sharp social commentary, masterfully translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, Sayaka Murata skewers the trappings of modern life and introduces readers to an innocent pushed to the very edge of sanity. Read More
Teaser
As a child, Natsuki doesn't fit in with her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut, who talks to her. He tells her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth. One summer, on vacation with her family and her cousin Yuu in her grandparents' ramshackle wooden house in the mountains of Nagano, Natsuki decides that she must be an alien, which would explain why she can't seem to fit in like everyone else. Later, as a grown woman, living a quiet life with her asexual husband, Natsuki is still pursued by dark shadows from her childhood, and decides to flee the "baby factory" of society for good, searching for answers about the vast and frightening mysteries of the universe.
Promo
As a child, Natsuki doesn't fit in with her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut, who talks to her. He tells her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth. One summer, on vacation with her family and her cousin Yuu in her grandparents' ramshackle wooden house in the mountains of Nagano, Natsuki decides that she must be an alien, which would explain why she can't seem to fit in like everyone else. Later, as a grown woman, living a quiet life with her asexual husband, Natsuki is still pursued by dark shadows from her childhood, and decides to flee the "baby factory" of society for good, searching for answers about the vast and frightening mysteries of the universe.
About the Book
From the beloved author of cult sensation CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN, which has now sold more than one million copies worldwide and has been translated into 33 languages, comes a spellbinding and otherworldly novel about a woman who believes she is an alien.
Sayaka Murata's CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN was one of the most unusual and refreshing bestsellers of recent years, depicting the life of a 36-year-old clerk in a Tokyo convenience store. Now, in EARTHLINGS, Sayaka Murata pushes at the boundaries of our ideas of social conformity in this brilliantly imaginative, intense, and absolutely unforgettable novel.
As a child, Natsuki doesn't fit in with her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut, who talks to her. He tells her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth. One summer, on vacation with her family and her cousin Yuu in her grandparents' ramshackle wooden house in the mountains of Nagano, Natsuki decides that she must be an alien, which would explain why she can't seem to fit in like everyone else. Later, as a grown woman, living a quiet life with her asexual husband, Natsuki is still pursued by dark shadows from her childhood, and decides to flee the "baby factory" of society for good, searching for answers about the vast and frightening mysteries of the universe --- answers only Natsuki has the power to uncover.
Dreamlike, sometimes shocking, and always strange and wonderful, EARTHLINGS asks what it means to be happy in a stifling world, and cements Sayaka Murata's status as a master chronicler of the outsider experience and our own uncanny universe.
Audiobook available, read by Nancy Wu
Editorial Content for The Wrong Kind of Woman
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
For those of you who didn’t live through the second wave of the feminist movement, for those of you for whom “Mrs. America” on Hulu was a new experience in history, and for those of you who think that #MeToo was an idea without a precedent, may I introduce you to THE WRONG KIND OF WOMAN by debut novelist Sarah McCraw Crow? Read More
Teaser
In late 1970, Oliver Desmarais drops dead in his front yard while hanging Christmas lights. In the year that follows, his widow, Virginia, struggles to find her place on the campus of the elite New Hampshire men’s college where Oliver was a professor. While Virginia had always shared her husband’s prejudices against the four outspoken, never-married women on the faculty, she now finds herself depending on them, even joining their work to bring the women’s movement to Clarendon College. Soon, though, reports of violent protests across the country reach this sleepy New England town, stirring tensions between the fraternal establishment of Clarendon and those calling for change. Virginia must decide if she’s willing to put herself and her family at risk for a cause that had never felt like her own.
Promo
In late 1970, Oliver Desmarais drops dead in his front yard while hanging Christmas lights. In the year that follows, his widow, Virginia, struggles to find her place on the campus of the elite New Hampshire men’s college where Oliver was a professor. While Virginia had always shared her husband’s prejudices against the four outspoken, never-married women on the faculty, she now finds herself depending on them, even joining their work to bring the women’s movement to Clarendon College. Soon, though, reports of violent protests across the country reach this sleepy New England town, stirring tensions between the fraternal establishment of Clarendon and those calling for change. Virginia must decide if she’s willing to put herself and her family at risk for a cause that had never felt like her own.
About the Book
A powerful exploration of what a woman can be when what she should be is no longer an option.
In late 1970, Oliver Desmarais drops dead in his front yard while hanging Christmas lights. In the year that follows, his widow, Virginia, struggles to find her place on the campus of the elite New Hampshire men’s college where Oliver was a professor. While Virginia had always shared her husband’s prejudices against the four outspoken, never-married women on the faculty --- dubbed the Gang of Four by their male counterparts --- she now finds herself depending on them, even joining their work to bring the women’s movement to Clarendon College.
Soon, though, reports of violent protests across the country reach this sleepy New England town, stirring tensions between the fraternal establishment of Clarendon and those calling for change. As authorities attempt to tamp down “radical elements,” Virginia must decide if she’s willing to put herself and her family at risk for a cause that had never felt like her own.
Told through alternating perspectives, THE WRONG KIND OF WOMAN is an engrossing story about finding the strength to forge new paths, beautifully woven against the rapid changes of the early '70s.
Audiobook available, read by Andi Arndt
Editorial Content for The Nightworkers
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
My opinions and impressions of THE NIGHTWORKERS were all over the place for a great deal of the story. Nearly all of the characters were fascinating and fully realized within a paragraph or two, but they disappeared all too quickly. Taken in parts, Brian Selfon’s debut may have its occasional weaknesses, but as a whole it is one of the best novels of the year thus far. Read More
Teaser
Shecky Keenan’s family is under fire --- or at least it feels that way. Bank accounts have closed unexpectedly, a strange car has been parked near the house at odd hours, and Emil Scott, an enigmatic artist and the family’s new runner, is missing --- along with the $250,000 of dirty money he was carrying. Shecky moves money for an array of unsavory clients, and his nephew Henry is his bagman. His niece Kerasha, the famed former child-thief of Bushwick, is still learning the family trade, but her quick mind and quicker fingers are already being put to use. They love one another, but trust is thin when secrets are the family trade. And someone will be coming for that missing money --- soon.
Promo
Shecky Keenan’s family is under fire --- or at least it feels that way. Bank accounts have closed unexpectedly, a strange car has been parked near the house at odd hours, and Emil Scott, an enigmatic artist and the family’s new runner, is missing --- along with the $250,000 of dirty money he was carrying. Shecky moves money for an array of unsavory clients, and his nephew Henry is his bagman. His niece Kerasha, the famed former child-thief of Bushwick, is still learning the family trade, but her quick mind and quicker fingers are already being put to use. They love one another, but trust is thin when secrets are the family trade. And someone will be coming for that missing money --- soon.
About the Book
THE NIGHTWORKERS is an electrifying debut crime novel from Brian Selfon about a Brooklyn family of money launderers thrown into chaos when a runner ends up dead and a bag of dirty money goes missing.
Shecky Keenan’s family is under fire --- or at least it feels that way. Bank accounts have closed unexpectedly, a strange car has been parked near the house at odd hours, and Emil Scott, an enigmatic artist and the family’s new runner, is missing --- along with the $250,000 of dirty money he was carrying.
Shecky lives in old Brooklyn with his niece Kerasha and nephew Henry, and while his deepest desire is to keep his little makeshift family safe, that doesn’t stop him from taking advantage of their talents. Shecky moves money for an array of unsavory clients, and Henry, volatile and violent but tenderhearted, is his bagman. Kerasha, the famed former child-thief of Bushwick, is still learning the family trade, but her quick mind and quicker fingers are already being put to use. They love one another, but trust is thin when secrets are the family trade. And someone will be coming for that missing money --- soon.
Inspired by a career that has included corruption cases and wiretaps as an investigative analyst for New York law enforcement, Brian Selfon unspools a tale of crime and consequence through shifting perspectives across the streets, alleys, bodegas, and art studios of Brooklyn. THE NIGHTWORKERS is an evocative blend of genres: a literary crime thriller with a mystery at the center of its big beating heart: What really happened to Emil Scott, and what can the future possibly hold for a family when crime is what keeps them together?
Audiobook available, read by Ella Turenne
Editorial Content for Never Turn Back
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
I think every reader on at least an occasional basis experiences a touch of literary ennui when nothing catches or hooks them. They will step away from their must-read pile for a day or two before coming back to it and finding that the novel that wouldn’t sing or even hum to them is now tapping right along. Sometimes, though, one will pick up a book that suddenly seems superglued to their hands, and they won’t be separated from it until the last sentence has been read. NEVER TURN BACK is one of those books. Read More
Teaser
Ethan Faulkner is a precocious child with a brilliant but troublesome sister, a war vet for a father, and a weary mother trying to manage their family. One night a young woman rings their doorbell, desperate to hide from two men who are pursuing her, when one of the two barges in after her. The struggle leaves both of Ethan's parents dead. Years later, Ethan hasn't quite followed through on his promise to his dying father --- to take care of his sister. Quite frankly, he wants her to suffer for preventing him from getting to his dad before he died all those years ago. When news of a brutal murder breaks with evidence pointing to Ethan as the prime suspect, all the painful memories of his past come rushing to meet him.
Promo
Ethan Faulkner is a precocious child with a brilliant but troublesome sister, a war vet for a father, and a weary mother trying to manage their family. One night a young woman rings their doorbell, desperate to hide from two men who are pursuing her, when one of the two barges in after her. The struggle leaves both of Ethan's parents dead. Years later, Ethan hasn't quite followed through on his promise to his dying father --- to take care of his sister. Quite frankly, he wants her to suffer for preventing him from getting to his dad before he died all those years ago. When news of a brutal murder breaks with evidence pointing to Ethan as the prime suspect, all the painful memories of his past come rushing to meet him.
About the Book
Linwood Barclay meets Michael Farris Smith in this Southern-set domestic thriller about family, vengeance and atonement from critically acclaimed Southern mystery novelist Christopher Swann.
The bonds of family never truly let go.
In fact, its grip only tightens the further you try to run: crushing and crippling.
Ethan Faulkner is a precocious child with a brilliant but troublesome sister, a war vet for a father, and a weary mother trying to manage their family. One night a young woman rings their doorbell, desperate to hide from two men who are pursuing her, when one of the two barges in after her. The struggle leaves both of Ethan's parents dead.
Years later, Ethan has a successful teaching career and a budding relationship with a coworker. But he hasn't quite followed through on his promise to his dying father --- to take care of his sister. Susannah is not an easy person to keep tabs on, is a handful even when the tabs are kept, and quite frankly, Ethan wants her to suffer for preventing him from getting to his dad before he died all those years ago.
It was a long time ago and Ethan tries to put all of it behind him. But that's easier said than done. When news of a brutal murder breaks with evidence pointing to Ethan as the prime suspect, all the painful memories of his past come rushing to meet him. Lyrically conveyed with emotion and nuance, NEVER TURN BACK is a powerful story about family, vengeance, and how some actions echo through the years with irreparable consequences.
Audiobook available, read by Ax Norman





