A Bright Shining Lie
A Bright Shining Lie

Author: Neil Sheehan

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2009-10-20

Total Pages: 898

ISBN-13: 0679603808

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One of the most acclaimed books of our time—the definitive Vietnam War exposé and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. When he came to Vietnam in 1962, Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann was the one clear-sighted participant in an enterprise riddled with arrogance and self-deception, a charismatic soldier who put his life and career on the line in an attempt to convince his superiors that the war should be fought another way. By the time he died in 1972, Vann had embraced the follies he once decried. He died believing that the war had been won. In this magisterial book, a monument of history and biography that was awarded the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction, a renowned journalist tells the story of John Vann—"the one irreplaceable American in Vietnam"—and of the tragedy that destroyed a country and squandered so much of America's young manhood and resources.

Bright Shining World
Bright Shining World

Author: Josh Swiller

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Published: 2020-11-24

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0593119576

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A darkly funny thriller about one boy's attempt to unravel the mysterious phenomenon affecting students in his new town, as he finds a way to resist sinister forces and pursue hope for them all. Wallace Cole is perpetually moving against his will. His father has some deeply important job with an energy company that he refuses to explain to Wallace who is, shall we say, suspicious. Not that his father ever listens to him. Just as Wallace is getting settled into a comfortable life in Kentucky, his father lets him know they need to immediately depart for a new job in a small town in Upstate New York which has recently been struck by an outbreak of inexplicable hysterics--an outbreak which is centered at the high school Wallace will attend. In the new town, go from disturbing to worse: trees appear to be talking to people; a school bully, the principal, and the town police force take an instant dislike to Wallace; and the student body president is either falling for him or slipping into the enveloping darkness. Bright Shining World is a novel of resistance, of young people finding hope and courage and community in a collapsing world.

Bright Shining
Bright Shining

Author: Julia Baird

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2024-10-08

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 006341273X

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'A powerful book from one of my favorite writers on something we all need more of...and could give more of.' — Ryan Holiday, bestselling author of The Obstacle is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy “Luminous. . . . A work to both devour and savour, Baird has, once again, written a book the world needs now.'”—Guardian From the bestselling author of Phosphorescence comes a beautiful and timely exploration of that most mysterious but necessary of human qualities: grace. Grace is hard to define. It can be found when we create ways to find meaning and dignity in connection with each other, building on our shared humanity, being kinder, bigger, better with each other. If, in its crudest interpretation, karma is getting what you deserve, then grace is the opposite: forgiving the unforgivable, favoring the undeserving, loving the unlovable. Sadly, we live in an era when grace is increasingly rare. Our growing distrust of the media, politicians, and each other has choked our ability to trust, to accept, to allow for mistakes, to forgive. What does grace look like in today’s world, and how do we recognize it, nurture it in ourselves and express it, even in the darkest of times? In this luminously beautiful, deeply insightful, and timely book, Baird explores the meaning of grace and how we can cut through negativity to find it today.

All the Bright Places
All the Bright Places

Author: Jennifer Niven

Publisher: Ember

Published: 2015-01-06

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 0385755902

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NOW A NETFLIX FILM, STARRING ELLE FANNING AND JUSTICE SMITH! The New York Times bestselling love story about two teens who find each other while standing on the edge. And don’t miss Take Me with You When You Go, Jennifer Niven’s highly anticipated new book with bestselling author David Levithan! Theodore Finch is fascinated by death. Every day he thinks of ways he might kill himself, but every day he also searches for—and manages to find—something to keep him here, and alive, and awake. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her small Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school—six stories above the ground— it’s unclear who saves whom. Soon it’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink. . . . “A do-not-miss for fans of Eleanor & Park and The Fault in Our Stars, and basically anyone who can breathe.” —Justine Magazine “At the heart—a big one—of All the Bright Places lies a charming love story about this unlikely and endearing pair of broken teenagers.” —The New York Times Book Review “A heart-rending, stylish love story.” —The Wall Street Journal “A complex love story that will bring all the feels.” —Seventeen Magazine “Impressively layered, lived-in, and real.” —Buzzfeed

Tree of Smoke
Tree of Smoke

Author: Denis Johnson

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2007-09-04

Total Pages: 638

ISBN-13: 9780374279127

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Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That’s me. This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature. Tree of Smoke is Denis Johnson’s first full-length novel in nine years, and his most gripping, beautiful, and powerful work to date. Tree of Smoke is the 2007 National Book Award Winner for Fiction.

Bright Shiny Morning
Bright Shiny Morning

Author: James Frey

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2009-10-13

Total Pages: 548

ISBN-13: 006179564X

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#1 National Bestseller “A sprawling, ambitious novel about Los Angeles, written with all the broad-stroke energy that was so irresistible to readers in A Million Little Pieces. By turns satirical, tense, and surprisingly touching, it is a portrait of a city onto which so many millions have projected so many dreams. . . . Compelling, cinematic. . . . It achieves the very essence of Los Angeles’s fractured, unpredictable, loopy nature.” — Vanity Fair “A captivating urban kaleidoscope. . . . James Frey got another chance. Look what he did with it. He stepped up to the plate and hit one out of the park. . . . He became a furiously good storyteller.” —Janet Maslin, New York Times One of the most celebrated and controversial authors in America delivers an extraordinary novel—a sweeping chronicle of contemporary Los Angeles that is bold, exhilarating, and utterly original. Dozens of characters pass through the reader's sight lines—some never to be seen again—but James Frey lingers on a handful of LA's lost souls and captures the dramatic narrative of their lives. A dazzling tour de force, Bright Shiny Morning illuminates the joys, horrors, and unexpected fortunes of life and death in Los Angeles.

The Great Good Place
The Great Good Place

Author: Ray Oldenburg

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 1999-08-18

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 0786752416

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The landmark survey that celebrates all the places where people hang out--and is helping to spawn their revival A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice "Third places," or "great good places," are the many public places where people can gather, put aside the concerns of home and work (their first and second places), and hang out simply for the pleasures of good company and lively conversation. They are the heart of a community's social vitality and the grassroots of a democracy. Author Ray Oldenburg portrays, probes, and promotes th4ese great good places--coffee houses, cafes, bookstores, hair salons, bars, bistros, and many others both past and present--and offers a vision for their revitalization. Eloquent and visionary, this is a compelling argument for these settings of informal public life as essential for the health both of our communities and ourselves. And its message is being heard: Today, entrepreneurs from Seattle to Florida are heeding the call of The Great Good Place--opening coffee houses, bookstores, community centers, bars, and other establishments and proudly acknowledging their indebtedness to this book.

My Bright Shining Star
My Bright Shining Star

Author: Rhonda Sellers Elkins

Publisher: Perfect Publishers Limited

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9781905399949

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To everyone who knew her, Kaitlyn Elkins was a happy, intelligent, compassionate and talented medical student with a bright future ahead. But behind her warm smile lurked a dark secret: depression. This is the story about a mother's quest to find some answers as to how her daughter, who seemed so happy on the outside, could hide such a dark, horrible depression that ultimately led to her suicide. A heartrending memoir of love and loss, and a caution to parents, teachers, counselors and young people that depression can lurk among the high achieving, that they hide it expertly.

The Shining Place
The Shining Place

Author: Frances Bennett

Publisher:

Published: 2019-07-11

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 9781718131736

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In the 1960's Frances grows up in the remote desert town of Thermal, CA. Most nights her father gets drunk and beats her mother. The child feels her joy slip away. To survive she knows she must hold on to the truth and remember what happened. Decades later in psychotherapy, Frances revisits her childhood and becomes trapped in a memory world of little girls with big demands and a lot to say. "The Shining Place" is a magical story of recovery told by the girls, and an account of their therapy endured and paid for by the adult client. "The Shining Place" is a combined memoir and an account of psychotherapy, adapted from journals written over a ten year period. It addresses issues of transference, distrust, dissociation, and rupture in the therapeutic alliance. It's a fast read on an abusive childhood and the complexities of psychotherapy.