Winter Sisters
Winter Sisters

Author: Robin Oliveira

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-02-05

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0399564268

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2019 FINALIST FOR THE WASHINGTON STATE BOOK AWARD “Stunning. . . Oliveira writes with feeling.” —The New York Times Book Review “[An] engrossing story. . . that feels utterly timely.” —People, “The Best New Books” New York, 1879: An epic blizzard descends on Albany, devastating the city. When the snow finally settles, two newly orphaned girls are missing. Determined not to give up hope, Dr. Mary Sutter, a former Civil War surgeon, searches for the two sisters. When what happened to them is finally revealed, Dr. Sutter must fight the most powerful of Albany's citizens, risking personal and public danger as she seeks to protect the fragile, putting at risk loves and lives in her quest to right unimaginable wrongs. As contemporary as it is historic, Winter Sisters is part gripping thriller, part family saga, and ultimately a story of trauma and resilience that explores the tremendous good and unspeakable evil of which humans are capable.

Ironweed
Ironweed

Author: William Kennedy

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011-12-22

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1849838364

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The beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, basis of the film starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Francis Phelan, ex-big-leaguer, part-time gravedigger, full-time bum with the gift of gab, is back in town. He left Albany twenty-two years earlier after he dropped his infant son accidentally, and the boy died. Now he's on the way back to the wife and home he abandoned, haunted at every corner by the ghosts of his violent life. Francis; his wino ladyfriend of nine years, Helen; and his stumblebum pal, Rudy, shuffle their ragtag way through the city's bleakest streets, surviving on gumption, muscatel, and black wit. estiny is not their business. 'The premise of Ironweed was so unpromising, that in marketing terms the writer still to this day finds it funny: the story of a bunch of itinerant alcoholics, knocking around Kennedy's hometown, falling out, having visions, trying to pass for sober to cadge a bed for the night in the homeless shelter.' Guardian 'But for all the rich variety of prose and event, from hallucination to bedrock realism to slapstick and to blessed quotidian peace, ''Ironweed'' is more austere than its predecessors. It is more fierce, but also more forgiving.' Quoted from the classic New York Times review of Ironweed, which made it an overnight sensation.

River of Fire
River of Fire

Author: Helen Prejean

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2019-08-13

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1400067308

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“River of Fire is Sister Helen’s story leading up to her acclaimed book Dead Man Walking—it is thought-provoking, informative, and inspiring. Read it and it will set your heart ablaze!”—Mark Shriver, author of Pilgrimage: My Search for the Real Pope Francis The nation’s foremost leader in efforts to abolish the death penalty shares the story of her growth as a spiritual leader, speaks out about the challenges of the Catholic Church, and shows that joy and religion are not mutually exclusive. Sister Helen Prejean’s work as an activist nun, campaigning to educate Americans about the inhumanity of the death penalty, is known to millions worldwide. Less widely known is the evolution of her spiritual journey from praying for God to solve the world’s problems to engaging full-tilt in working to transform societal injustices. Sister Helen grew up in a well-off Baton Rouge family that still employed black servants. She joined the Sisters of St. Joseph at the age of eighteen and was in her forties when she had an awakening that her life’s work was to immerse herself in the struggle of poor people forced to live on the margins of society. Sister Helen writes about the relationships with friends, fellow nuns, and mentors who have shaped her over the years. In this honest and fiercely open account, she writes about her close friendship with a priest, intent on marrying her, that challenged her vocation in the “new territory of the heart.” The final page of River of Fire ends with the opening page of Dead Man Walking, when she was first invited to correspond with a man on Louisiana’s death row. River of Fire is a book for anyone interested in journeys of faith and spirituality, doubt and belief, and “catching on fire” to purpose and passion. It is a book, written in accessible, luminous prose, about how to live a spiritual life that is wide awake to the sufferings and creative opportunities of our world. “Prejean chronicles the compelling, sometimes-difficult journey to the heart of her soul and faith with wit, honesty, and intelligence. A refreshingly intimate memoir of a life in faith.”—Kirkus Reviews

Low Down: Junk, Jazz, and Other Fairy Tales from Childhood
Low Down: Junk, Jazz, and Other Fairy Tales from Childhood

Author: A.J. Albany

Publisher: Tin House Books

Published: 2013-11-12

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 1935639773

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Wise beyond her years and hip to the unpredictable ways of life at all too early an age, A.J. Albany guides us through dope and deviance of the late 1960s and early 1970s in Hollywood shadowy underbelly and beyond. A. J. Albany's recollection of life with her father, the great jazz pianist Joe Albany, is the story of one girl's unsentimental education. Joe played with the likes of Charles Mingus, Lester Young, and Charlie Parker, but between gigs he slipped into drug-induced obscurity. It was during these times that his daughter knew him best. After her mother disappeared, six-year-old Amy Jo and her charming, troubled father set up housekeeping in a seamy Hollywood hotel. While Joe finished a set in some red-boothed dive, chances were you'd find Amy curled up to sleep on someone's fur coat, clutching a 78 of Louis Armstrong's "Sugar Blues" or, later, a photograph of the man himself, inscribed, "To little Amy Jo, always in love with you--Pops." Wise beyond her years and hip to the unpredictable ways of Old Lady Life at all too early an age, A. J. Albany guides us through the dope and deviance of the late 1960s and early 1970s in Hollywood's shadowy underbelly and beyond. What emerges is a raw, gripping, and surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a young girl trying to survive among the outcasts, misfits, and artists who surrounded her.

Roscoe
Roscoe

Author: William Kennedy

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2002-11-26

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0142001732

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“Thick with crime, passion, and backroom banter” (The New Yorker), Roscoe is an odyssey of great scope and linguistic verve, a deadly, comic masterpiece from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ironweed It's V-J Day, the war is over, and Roscoe Conway, after twenty-six years as the second in command of Albany's notorious political machine, decides to quit politics forever. But there's no way out, and only his Machiavellian imagination can help him cope with the erupting disasters. Every step leads back to the past—to the early loss of his true love, the takeover of city hall, the machine's fight with FDR and Al Smith to elect a governor, and the methodical assassination of gangster Jack "Legs" Diamond. William Kennedy’s Albany Cycle of novels reflect what he once described as the fusion of his imagination with a single place. A native and longtime resident of Albany, New York, his work moves from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, chronicling family life, the city’s netherworld, and its spheres of power—financial, ethnic, political—often among the Irish-Americans who dominated the city in this period. The novels in his cycle include, Legs, Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game, Ironweed, Quinn’s Book, Very Old Bones, The Flaming Corsage, and Roscoe.

Kennedy’s Goodbye
Kennedy’s Goodbye

Author: Kati Rose

Publisher: Post Hill Press

Published: 2022-03-08

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 1637582382

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Is hope a myth? Is love a lie? Is God dead? Kennedy needs to know. But she’s left feeling alone, grappling to make sense of the world around her. The youngest member of a devout Catholic family, her preordained pathway of perfection into heaven becomes more like a highway to hell. With so many roadblocks—sin, sex, losses, lies—will Kennedy find a place to belong? A place where it’s OK to be OK? A place where hope is real and love is true? In this coming-of-age novel set in upstate New York in the seventies and eighties, told in a freshly candid voice that evolves as she grows and matures, Kennedy says goodbye to many things—but to what? Hope? Love? God? Or her own self? Find out in Kennedy’s Goodbye.

My Name is Mary Sutter
My Name is Mary Sutter

Author: Robin Oliveira

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 0241950007

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On the eve of the American Civil War, Mary Sutter, a brilliant, headstrong midwife from New York, is dreaming of becoming a surgeon. Eager to escape the pains of a broken heart and a life in the shadow of her more beautiful twin sister, she travels to Washington to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded.

The Very Last List of Vivian Walker
The Very Last List of Vivian Walker

Author: Megan Albany

Publisher:

Published: 2023-02

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780733649486

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, Vivian Walker is dying. This is not on her list of things to do. A darkly funny debut that proves even the most imperfect of lives is worth celebrating. 'A heartbreakingly funny, unflinching, unforgettable debut. I just loved Vivian Walker!' LIANE MORIARTY 'Will make you laugh, cry and realise that even the most ordinary life is full of extraordinary moments' MAMAMIA Vivian Walker's life is exceptionally ordinary. Average husband, check. Darling son, check. Refrigerator in a state of permanent disarray, check. Everything is thoroughly and frustratingly routine, even being terminally ill. In preparation for D-day, Viv has made a list of essential things to do. She doesn't expect to become spiritually enlightened or have any outlandish last-minute successes. All she wants is to finish her unfinished business. The Very Last List of Vivian Walker will make you want to embrace humanity in all its selfishness, beauty and awkwardness. 'This novel has humour and pathos in spades - I laughed and cried' THE SATURDAY PAPER 'Compelling. Beautifully relatable. A touching story' BOOKS+PUBLISHING 'Darkly funny and will leave you uplifted. Megan Albany blends the tragedy with the humorous' WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN 'A fun take on a tough topic' THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLY 'A fun read that gets to the meaning of life through death' SARAH L'ESTRANGE, ABC 'Remarkably talented' WHO 'Funny and heart-breaking in equal measure, a skilfully wrought study of the difficult art of dying in our society' LIVING ARTS CANBERRA 'I cried reading this debut novel. I also laughed and despaired . . . the type of novel that you'll read quickly and that will compel you to find your family and hold them tight' READINGS 'An abundance of humour, spirit and profundity . . . an accomplished debut' BETTER READING 'Uplifting and impactful' BETTER HOMES & GARDENS 'Megan Albany has written a novel that is funny, real, and never glib; it is clear she loves all her characters' QUEENSLAND REVIEWERS COLLECTIVE,

The Legends and Traditions of a Northern County
The Legends and Traditions of a Northern County

Author: James Fenimore Cooper

Publisher: Read Books Ltd

Published: 2016-03-10

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1473360781

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This vintage book contains a fascinating account of the history of north America, being an exploration of the legends and traditions of its early settlers. It constitutes an attempt to preserve for future generations of the author's family, information concerning the conditions of those who lived, struggled, and died in the formative years of American colonisation. "The Legends and Traditions of a Northern County" will appeal to those with an interest in American history, and it would make for a worthy addition to collections of allied literature. Contents include: "An Introduction", "Early Settlements And Settlers", "Local Nonclemature", "The Four Corners", "Ghosts-ours And Others", "A Graveyard Romance-a Tragedy And A Scandal", "Some Abandoned Houses", "The Red-the Black-and The White Man", "A Great Highway", "A Lost Atmosphere", et cetera. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction.