On a hot July night on Cape Cod, at the age of 14, Brodeur became a confidante to her mother's affair with her husband's closest friend. Malabar came to rely on her daughter to help, but when the affair had calamitous consequences for everyone involved, Brodeau was driven into a precarious marriage of her own, and then into a deep depression. In her memoir she examines how the people close to us can break our hearts simply because they have access to them, and the lies we tell in order to justify the choices we make. -- adapted from jacket
A New York Times notable book and winner of The Northern California Book Award for Best Short Fiction, these nine brave, wise, and spellbinding stories make up this debut. In "When She is Old and I Am Famous" a young woman confronts the inscrutable power of her cousin's beauty. In "Note to Sixth-Grade Self" a band of popular girls exert their social power over an awkward outcast. In "Isabel Fish" fourteen-year-old Maddy learns to scuba dive in order to mend her family after a terrible accident. Alive with the victories, humiliations, and tragedies of youth, How to Breathe Underwater illuminates this powerful territory with striking grace and intelligence. "These stories are without exception clear-eyed, compassionate and deeply moving.... Even her most bitter characters have a gift, the sharp wit of envy. This, Orringer's first book, is breathtakingly good, truly felt and beautifully delivered."—The Guardian
Part of the regionalist movement that included Grant Wood, Paul Engle, Hamlin Garland, and Jay G. Sigmund, James Hearst helped create what Iowa novelist Ruth Suckow called a poetry of place. A lifelong Iowa farner, Hearst began writing poetry at age nineteen and eventually wrote thirteen books of poems, a novel, short stories, cantatas, and essays, which gained him a devoted following Many of his poems were published in the regionalist periodicals of the time, including the Midland, and by the great regional presses, including Carroll Coleman's Prairie Press. Drawing on his experiences as a farmer, Hearst wrote with a distinct voice of rural life and its joys and conflicts, of his own battles with physical and emotional pain (he was partially paralyzed in a farm accident), and of his own place in the world. His clear eye offered a vision of the midwestern agrarian life that was sympathetic but not sentimental - a people and an art rooted in place.
A young girl and her lovable dog, Lulu, are the best of friends and do everything together. As Lulu ages and starts to slow down the girl shows her compassion by making Lulu comfortable in her bed and helping to feed her. When Lulu dies the caring, young girl must comes to terms with her loss and find a way to say goodbye. This lyrical and touching story will tug at the heartstrings of all readers--young and old.
Fair, witty appraisal of cranks, quacks, and quackeries of science and pseudoscience: hollow earth, Velikovsky, orgone energy, Dianetics, flying saucers, Bridey Murphy, food and medical fads, and much more.
When Hugh MacLeod was a struggling young copywriter, living in a YMCA, he started to doodle on the backs of business cards while sitting at a bar. Those cartoons eventually led to a popular blog - gapingvoid.com - and a reputation for pithy insight and humor, in both words and pictures. MacLeod has opinions on everything from marketing to the meaning of life, but one of his main subjects is creativity. How do new ideas emerge in a cynical, risk-averse world? Where does inspiration come from? What does it take to make a living as a creative person? Now his first book, Ignore Everyone, expands on his sharpest insights, wittiest cartoons, and most useful advice. A sample: *Selling out is harder than it looks. Diluting your product to make it more commercial will just make people like it less. *If your plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail. Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain. *Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether. There's no point trying to do the same thing as 250,000 other young hopefuls, waiting for a miracle. All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one. *The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to be yours. The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will. After learning MacLeod's 40 keys to creativity, you will be ready to unlock your own brilliance and unleash it on the world.
Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Fallon, who was taken far away from home shortly after she was born.? A home that held more than strange traditions and bizarre superstitions.Twenty-four years later, she returned to Weeping Hollow, a haunting town she'd only heard about in stories during restless nights under a marble moon, to meet her last living relative.? They called her a freakshow--a ghost. They said I couldn't go near her.Still, there was this aching pull to Fallon Grimaldi that I couldn't escape.A nostalgic pull as if we'd been here before.Once upon a time, there lived a mysterious man named Julian with a curse as old as centuries wrapped around his soul.? He was one of the four Hollow Heathens, the very dark creatures who caused the town's people to live in fear.? And the Blackwell name was stained with darkness and death.They called him a monster. Cold and hollow. They said I shouldn't go near him.Still, there was this aching pull to Julian Blackwell that I couldn't escape.A nostalgic pull as if we'd been here before.
Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Fallon, who was taken far away from home shortly after she was born. A home that held more than strange traditions and bizarre superstitions.Twenty-four years later, she returned to Weeping Hollow, a haunting town she'd only heard about in stories during restless nights under a marble moon, to meet her last living relative. They called her a freakshow--a ghost. They said I couldn't go near her.Still, there was this aching pull to Fallon Grimaldi that I couldn't escape.A nostalgic pull as if we'd been here before.Once upon a time, there lived a mysterious man named Julian with a curse as old as centuries wrapped around his soul. He was one of the four Hollow Heathens, the very dark creatures who caused the town's people to live in fear. And the Blackwell name was stained with darkness and death.They called him a monster. Cold and hollow. They said I shouldn't go near him.Still, there was this aching pull to Julian Blackwell that I couldn't escape.A nostalgic pull as if we'd been here before.
The New York Times bestseller long regarded as a classic in the literature of the unexplained—the basis of the 2002 film starring Richard Gere. “The Mothman remains a potent piece of American folklore.” —CNN West Virginia, 1966. For thirteen months the town of Point Pleasant is gripped by a real-life nightmare culminating in a tragedy that makes headlines around the world. Strange occurrences and sightings, including a bizarre winged apparition that becomes known as the Mothman, trouble this ordinary American community. Mysterious lights are seen moving across the sky. Domestic animals are found slaughtered and mutilated. And journalist John Keel, arriving to investigate the freakish events, soon finds himself an integral part of an eerie and unfathomable mystery. “An essential read. Even if you just enjoy good suspense, when Keel talks of his own experiences with Men in Black, stolen evidence, and intimidation via eerie phone calls and visitations, you’ll want to keep reading.” —Strange Horizons
