He never did much, but he • had two first cars, • went on three first dates with the same girl, • played in Yankee Stadium every summer, • made All-American without playing a single down, • grew three feet in one day, and • played in the game of the century. It’s just part of being an ordinary guy having the time of his life growing up in a small town. Join the fun! Read the book! Enjoy life!
These widely acclaimed essays from the author of Infinite Jest -- on television, tennis, cruise ships, and more -- established David Foster Wallace as one of the preeminent essayists of his generation. In this exuberantly praised book -- a collection of seven pieces on subjects ranging from television to tennis, from the Illinois State Fair to the films of David Lynch, from postmodern literary theory to the supposed fun of traveling aboard a Caribbean luxury cruiseliner -- David Foster Wallace brings to nonfiction the same curiosity, hilarity, and exhilarating verbal facility that has delighted readers of his fiction, including the bestselling Infinite Jest.
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK • “A gripping and poignant ode to a messy, loving family in all its glory.” —Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe In this “rich, complex family saga” (USA Today) full of long-buried family secrets, Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, blithely ignorant of all that awaits them. By 2016, they have four radically different daughters, each in a state of unrest. Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men; Violet, a litigator turned stay-at-home-mom, battles anxiety and self-doubt; Liza, a neurotic and newly tenured professor, finds herself pregnant with a baby she's not sure she wants by a man she's not sure she loves; and Grace, the dawdling youngest daughter, begins living a lie that no one in her family even suspects. With the unexpected arrival of young Jonah Bendt—a child placed for adoption by one of the daughters fifteen years before—the Sorensons will be forced to reckon with the rich and varied tapestry of their past. As they grapple with years marred by adolescent angst, infidelity, and resentment, they also find the transcendent moments of joy that make everything else worthwhile. Don't miss Claire Lombardo's new book, Same As It Ever Was!
"With its gentle affirmations, inspirational quotes, fill-in-the-blank lists and tasks — write yourself a thank-you letter, describe yourself at 80, for example — The Artist’s Way proposes an egalitarian view of creativity: Everyone’s got it."—The New York Times "Morning Pages have become a household name, a shorthand for unlocking your creative potential"—Vogue Over four million copies sold! Since its first publication, The Artist's Way phenomena has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Julia Cameron's novel approach guides readers in uncovering problems areas and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to free up any areas where they might be stuck, opening up opportunities for self-growth and self-discovery. The program begins with Cameron’s most vital tools for creative recovery – The Morning Pages, a daily writing ritual of three pages of stream-of-conscious, and The Artist Date, a dedicated block of time to nurture your inner artist. From there, she shares hundreds of exercises, activities, and prompts to help readers thoroughly explore each chapter. She also offers guidance on starting a “Creative Cluster” of fellow artists who will support you in your creative endeavors. A revolutionary program for personal renewal, The Artist's Way will help get you back on track, rediscover your passions, and take the steps you need to change your life.
"I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to." And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn't hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of smiling village where the movies from his youth were set. Instead he drove through a series of horrific burgs, which he renamed Smellville, Fartville, Coleslaw, Coma, and Doldrum. At best his search led him to Anywhere, USA, a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by obese and slow-witted hicks with a partiality for synthetic fibres. He discovered a continent that was doubly lost: lost to itself because he found it blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a foreigner in his own country.
This is a mind bending, uplifting, transformation of, a cold seeming past, to the overturning into a beautiful new world where the past is atoned. The cruel struggles of the memories in the book only lead down a more, even yet, cruel undecided fate, which could become her last moments. Though, no time is to spare, in finding the whereabouts of her location in her abduction, she struggles forth. Forgetting herself, learning a path she never thought was possible, she finds her way through the darkness, being accompanied among the lost.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.
No comics publisher has had a greater impact ― or generated more controversy ― than the immensely influential EC Comics. The second and concluding volume of conversations with the creators behind the EC war/horror/science fiction/suspense line brings The Comics Journal’s definitive interviews together with several never-before-published sessions, including a new interview with the legendary Jack Davis conducted by Gary Groth. It also includes: Publisher Bill Gaines on the origins of the company and his terrifying grilling before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, editor/writer/artist Al Feldstein on introducing serious science fiction to comics and his interactions with Ray Bradbury. Harvey Kurtzman on bringing realism to war comics with Frontline Combat and subversive satire to humor comics with Mad, the master of chirascuro, Alex Toth, on the aesthetic values that guided him through a career that included drawing for EC and animating Jonny Quest, colorist Marie Severin on the atmosphere of pranks and anarchy that dominated the EC bullpen. Plus, career-spanning interviews with George Evans and Jack Kamen, rare Q&A sessions with formal experimenter Bernard Krigstein and EC writer Colin Dawkins, and a conversation between Jack Davis and award-winning alternative cartoonist Jim Woodring.
Told in their separate voices, sixteen-year-old Prince Oliver, who wants to break free of his fairy-tale existence, and fifteen-year-old Delilah, a loner obsessed with Prince Oliver and the book in which he exists, work together to seek his freedom.
This book is all about the limitations we impose on ourselves by maintaining our ego and how to fix it in order to awaken to what we truly are. Our ego is simply a personal collection of beliefs adopted early in life to protect us from feeling unloved and unworthy. We created them to help us feel safe and secure. These beliefs spawn feelings and behaviors, which we call defense mechanisms or coping strategies. We each have become addicted to replaying these coping strategies whenever our beliefs are challenged. Employing these coping strategies and living defensively limits our happiness and masks our awareness of what we truly are. Of note, this addiction to ones ego is the root of all addiction. This book helps the reader to understand and change these beliefs, many of which they have outgrown, and more importantly, to experience what the fear-based ego can never engenderlove. Our willingness to give and receive unconditional love is our gateway to living authentically, fully present. Do you want to continue to live self-identified with your ego, or are you willing to move forward and awaken to what you truly are?
