The Sense of an Ending

The Sense of an Ending

Author: Julian Barnes

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2011-10-05

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 0307957330

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BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A novel that follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he left his past behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.


A Ladder to the Sky

A Ladder to the Sky

Author: John Boyne

Publisher: Hogarth

Published: 2018-11-13

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 1984823035

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“A satire of writerly ambition wrapped in a psychological thriller . . . An homage to Patricia Highsmith, Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe, but its execution is entirely Boyne’s own.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE Maurice Swift is handsome, charming, and hungry for fame. The one thing he doesn’t have is talent—but he’s not about to let a detail like that stand in his way. After all, a would-be writer can find stories anywhere. They don’t need to be his own. Working as a waiter in a West Berlin hotel in 1988, Maurice engineers the perfect opportunity: a chance encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann. He quickly ingratiates himself with the powerful – but desperately lonely – older man, teasing out of Erich a terrible, long-held secret about his activities during the war. Perfect material for Maurice’s first novel. Once Maurice has had a taste of literary fame, he knows he can stop at nothing in pursuit of that high. Moving from the Amalfi Coast, where he matches wits with Gore Vidal, to Manhattan and London, Maurice hones his talent for deceit and manipulation, preying on the talented and vulnerable in his cold-blooded climb to the top. But the higher he climbs, the further he has to fall. . . . Sweeping across the late twentieth century, A Ladder to the Sky is a fascinating portrait of a relentlessly immoral man, a tour de force of storytelling, and the next great novel from an acclaimed literary virtuoso. Praise for A Ladder to the Sky “Boyne's mastery of perspective, last seen in The Heart's Invisible Furies, works beautifully here. . . . Boyne understands that it's far more interesting and satisfying for a reader to see that narcissist in action than to be told a catchall phrase. Each step Maurice Swift takes skyward reveals a new layer of calumny he's willing to engage in, and the desperation behind it . . . so dark it seems almost impossible to enjoy reading A Ladder to the Sky as much as you definitely will enjoy reading it.”—NPR “Delicious . . . spins out over several decades with thrilling unpredictability, following Maurice as he masters the art of co-opting the stories of others in increasingly dubious ways. And while the book reads as a thriller with a body count that would make Highsmith proud, it is also an exploration of morality and art: Where is the line between inspiration and thievery? To whom does a story belong?”—Vanity Fair


The Awakened Kingdom

The Awakened Kingdom

Author: N. K. Jemisin

Publisher: Orbit

Published: 2014-12-09

Total Pages: 105

ISBN-13: 0316259055

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The long awaited sequel to the Inheritance trilogy -- a novella by award winning author N. K. Jemisin where a godling must struggle to grow in the shadow of her parents. Some truths must be learned the hard way. . . As the first new godling born in thousands of years -- and the heir presumptive to Sieh the Trickster -- Shill's got big shoes to fill. She's well on her way when she defies her parents and sneaks off to the mortal realm, which is no place for an impressionable young god. In short order she steals a demon's grandchild, gets herself embroiled in a secret underground magical dance competition, and offends her oldest and most powerful sibling. But for Eino, the young Darren man whom Shill has befriended, the god-child's silly games are serious business. Trapped in an arranged marriage and prohibited from pursuing his dreams, he has had enough. He will choose his own fate, even if he must betray a friend in the process -- and Shill might just have to grow up faster than she thinks. This novella, The Awakened Kingdom takes place after the events of The Kingdom of Gods and will also be included in both the print and ebook ominbus of The Inheritance Trilogy in 12/14.


The Fifth Season

The Fifth Season

Author: N. K. Jemisin

Publisher: Orbit

Published: 2015-08-04

Total Pages: 483

ISBN-13: 031622930X

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At the end of the world, a woman must hide her secret power and find her kidnapped daughter in this "intricate and extraordinary" Hugo Award winning novel of power, oppression, and revolution. (The New York Times) This is the way the world ends. . .for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy. Read the first book in the critically acclaimed, three-time Hugo award-winning trilogy by NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin.


Bewilderment: A Novel

Bewilderment: A Novel

Author: Richard Powers

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2021-09-21

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 0393881156

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AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB SELECTION An Instant New York Times Bestseller Shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize Longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction Longlisted for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction A heartrending new novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning and #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Overstory. The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. Robin is a warm, kind boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He’s also about to be expelled from third grade for smashing his friend in the face. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental neurofeedback treatment to bolster Robin’s emotional control, one that involves training the boy on the recorded patterns of his mother’s brain… With its soaring descriptions of the natural world, its tantalizing vision of life beyond, and its account of a father and son’s ferocious love, Bewilderment marks Richard Powers’s most intimate and moving novel. At its heart lies the question: How can we tell our children the truth about this beautiful, imperiled planet?


Big and Bad

Big and Bad

Author: Anna K. Scotti

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 9781680031966

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"Candy is a tough-talking California teen who can take care of herself, except that she hasn't quite dealt with her own anger with her mother for dying, with her father for being a bully and a drunk, or with her suspicion no one has noticed that she never showed up for sophomore year of high school. Other than that, life's great, until a sarcastic stranger, Carlos, arrives to stay with the janitor's family in Candy's apartment building, forcing her back to the land of the living despite her determination to stay numb, and therefore safe. Bear is a sweet-tempered giant of a dog, the cherished pet of a well to do couple-until their young son dies while in his care. Grief-stricken, the mother abandons Bear at the local shelter, where he is adopted by the teenaged son of a less indulgent family. Bear stays with his new family for several years, adjusting to a less-pampered but still adequate way of life. But when that boy leaves for college, Bear is dumped on a country road and is then adopted by a series of strangers, both kind and cruel. After another stint in the shelter, Bear winds up as a junkyard dog-renamed Big and Bad-and eventually finds himself, nearly broken, sold to a fighting ring, where he rallies just enough strength to try to defend an old friend. Candy's romance with Carlos, and her growing friendship with his family, provides a sweet counterpoint to the chaos she faces every day, living with a father who drinks too much and seems to have lost both his pride and his sense of responsibility. Candy is directionless, but Carlos' ambition and determination inspire her, and his aunt and cousins give Candy a taste of normal family life her father can't provide. She grows so close to Carlos that she's heartbroken and furious when he explains that he has to leave Los Angeles to attend university. Candy's and Bear's stories intertwine only incidentally, until Candy is forced to realize that her once beloved father is not only incapable of caring for her, but is involved in the hideous business of dog fighting. Unable to rely on anyone around her, Candy faces the truth and does her best to rescue the big dog she once delivered into evil hands. The author supports the work of the Humane Society of the United States"--Provided by the publisher."--


Paranoia Blues

Paranoia Blues

Author: Josh Pachter

Publisher: Down & Out Books

Published: 2022-10-31

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13:

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Across five studio albums with Art Garfunkel (1964-1970) and fourteen solo albums (1965-2018), Paul Simon’s music and lyrics have inspired generations of listeners. For Paranoia Blues, nineteen masters of contemporary short crime fiction wrote new stories, each inspired by one of Simon’s songs: one from each of the five Simon and Garfunkel studio albums (plus a bonus second story inspired by a song from Bridge Over Troubled Water) and one from each of the fourteen solo studio albums. The contributors include award-winners E.A. Aymar, Martin Edwards, Cheryl A. Head, Edwin Hill, Tom Mead, Raquel V. Reyes, Gabriel Valjan, and a dozen more—plus the first new story by Robert Edward Eckels in more than forty years! This is the fifth “inspired by” anthology edited by Josh Pachter, a recent winner of the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s Golden Derringer Award for Lifetime Achievement; the previous books drew on the music of Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel, and Joni Mitchell—and the films of the Marx Brothers.


Stoner

Stoner

Author: John Williams

Publisher: New York Review of Books

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1590179285

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"Born the child of a poor farmer in Missouri, William Stoner is urged by his parents to study new agriculture techniques at the state university. Digging instead into the texts of Milton and Shakespeare, Stoner falls under the spell of the unexpected pleasures of English literature, and decides to make it his life. Stoner is the story of that life"--