In a Big Storm Knocked It Over, acclaimed author Laurie Colwin explores marriage, friendship, motherhood, and careers as experienced by a cast of endearing idiosyncratic Manhattanites. At once a hilarious social commentary and an insightful, sophisticated modern romance, A Big Storm Knocked It Over will stand as a living tribute to one of contemporary fiction's most original voice.
“If anyone wrote eloquently and magnificently about affairs of the heart, it was Laurie Colwin.” —San Francisco Chronicle At first glance, Polly Solo-Miller Demarest appears to have it all. The only daughter of a distinguished and close-knit family, she marries a handsome lawyer named Henry (just like her father and brother) and has two adorable and well-behaved children, Pete and Dee-Dee. She lives in a comfortable Park Avenue apartment, works three days a week in a rewarding job at the Board of Education, and spends every August in Maine. People regularly tell her, with admiration and envy, that she has life aced. What no one suspects is that this perfect daughter, wife, and mother, always so eager to see to the happiness of others, would be willing to risk everything for love. From the moment she encounters his beautiful portraits in a group show, Polly cannot get Lincoln Bennett out of her mind. Soon she and the solitary, kindhearted painter are wrapped up in a deep and thrilling romance, and Polly has never felt more euphoric—or more terrified. Previously she divided women into two groups—those who have affairs and those who do not—and placed herself firmly in the latter category. How could she have been so wrong? And what does her passion for Lincoln say about the genuine pleasure she takes in her marriage and her family? A sophisticated, sincere, and ultimately hopeful novel about the search for fulfillment, Family Happiness is a testament to the clarity of Laurie Colwin’s vision and the elegance of her craft. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Laurie Colwin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.
An insightful domestic comedy, at once hilarious and extremely moving, Goodbye Without Leaving is the story of a woman's attempt to remain true to herself in a world of diminishing returns. As a bored graduate student, Geraldine Colshares is plucked from her too-tame existence when she is invited to tour as the only white backup singer for Vernon and Ruby Shakely and the Shakettes. The years she spends as a Shakette are a mixed blessing, however, for while they provide her with purpose and excitement, she ultimately submits to a conventional life of marriage, children, and bittersweet memories of what comes to seem a glorious past. With her usual dry wit and candor, Laurie Colwin follows Geraldine as she tries to reconcile her past with her future, to be an adult and still boogie in her soul.
“Witty, literate and intelligent” linked stories that follow an extramarital affair from beginning to end, by the author of Happy All the Time (The New York Times Book Review). Josephine “Billy” Delielle and Francis Clemens are sleeping together. Both are economists and both are married to other people, but the similarities end there. He is fastidious; she is a slob. He delights in good food and fine wine; her refrigerator is always empty. He is old and sentimental; she is young and tough minded. This is not his first extramarital dalliance; she never imagined it was possible to love anyone but her husband. The desire that Billy and Francis feel for each other is as inexplicable as it is undeniable, and the moments they steal together are electrifying, tense, and reassuring all at once. Told from the alternating perspectives of two adulterous lovers, Another Marvelous Thing is an exquisitely crafted story collection that tackles the thorniest of subjects with honesty, grace, and humor. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Laurie Colwin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.
I guess I always felt even if the world came to an end, McDonald's still would be open. High school sophomore Miranda's disbelief turns to fear in a split second when an asteroid knocks the moon closer to Earth, like "one marble hits another." The result is catastrophic. How can her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis are wiping out the coasts, earthquakes are rocking the continents, and volcanic ash is blocking out the sun? As August turns dark and wintery in northeastern Pennsylvania, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove. Told in a year's worth of journal entries, this heart-pounding story chronicles Miranda's struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world. An extraordinary series debut Susan Beth Pfeffer has written several companion novels to Life As We Knew It, including The Dead and the Gone, This World We Live In, and The Shade of the Moon.
The vibrant and tender story of a young woman coming to terms with tragedy and finding the courage to love again From the moment they meet, Elizabeth “Olly” Marcus and Sam Bax are coconspirators. They dump Olly’s boyfriend in the library, speed off on the back of Sam’s motorcycle, and seal their reckless bargain with a kiss in an apple orchard. A year later, they are married. Five years after that, Olly is a widow, her last glimpse of Sam a bright white dot on the horizon as he sailed into a storm off the coast of Maine. At the age of twenty-seven, Olly must begin again. She has lost an accomplice, but Sam’s parents have lost a son, and his brother, Patrick, has lost his best friend and the one person who truly understood him. The bonds of family are both a comfort and a burden to Olly as she tries to find a way to live with her grief and accept her role in her daredevil husband’s fate. Eventually she rediscovers her own sense of adventure, and with a newfound strength, she pursues a deep and abiding love that is the greatest surprise of her life. Told with compassion, honesty, and humor, Shine On, Bright & Dangerous Object is an unforgettable story of love and loss. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Laurie Colwin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.
A modern classic first published in 1978 that is as much a sophisticated romantic comedy about the love between two partners as it is a novel about the powerful bonds shared by family members, friends, colleagues and confidants. “A comedy of manners that reminds us that manners are comic and should be enjoyed as such.” —The New York Times Guido and Vincent, best friends (and third cousins), aren’t expecting to fall head-over-heels in love, but that is exactly what happens. Guido is smitten with Holly, a dazzling young woman who chafes at the idea of complacency, while Vincent falls for Misty, a work colleague with an acerbic sense of humor who seems as uninterested in romance as she is in Vincent (at first). In the months that follow, both couples will experience the rituals of courtship, jealousy, estrangement, family entanglements, and other perils of the heart as they try to find love in spite of themselves. Colwin is a master of portraying the messiness of life: here, in hilarious and endearing prose, she follows these two improbable pairs, and their families, as they navigate and ultimately find happiness together—not all the time, but for most of it. With a foreword by Katherine Heiny.
“Laurie Colwin’s beautiful final book, A Big Storm Knocked It Over, is funny and moving and rich with complicated happiness—a love story for anyone who tends to overthink things, a comic novel about trying to find a place in the world.” — Maile Meloy, author of Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It In her fifth and final novel, acclaimed author Laurie Colwin explores marriage and friendship, motherhood and careers, as experienced by a cast of delightfully idiosyncratic Manhattanites. At once a hilarious social commentary and an insightful, sophisticated modern romance, A Big Storm Knocked It Over stands as a living tribute to one of contemporary fiction’s most original and beloved voices. In her late thirties, Jane Louise Parker has just married a man whose native decency leaves her almost breathless at her good fortune. After the wedding, she returns to work at a small and tony publishing house whose finances are in disarray. Alongside her best friend, Edie, Jane Louise patiently waits to become pregnant, wondering if a baby will provide a sense of rootedness that still seems to elude her. When that longed-for child arrives, it transforms the Parkers’ lives in a way that is as unexpected as it is rapturous.
More Home Cooking, like its predecessor, Home Cooking, is an expression of Laurie Colwin's lifelong passion for cuisine. In this delightful mix of recipes, advice, and anecdotes, she writes about often overlooked food items such as beets, pears, black beans, and chutney. With down-to-earth charm and wit, Colwin also discusses the many pleasures and problems of cooking at home in essays such as "Desserts That Quiver," "Turkey Angst," and "Catering on One Dollar a Head." As informative as it is entertaining, More Home Cooking is a delicious treat for anyone who loves to spend time in the kitchen.
Now a Netflix film starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha'la, Farrah Mackenzie, Charlie Evans and Kevin Bacon. Written for the Screen and Directed by Sam Esmail. Executive Producers Barack and Michelle Obama, Tonia Davis, Daniel M. Stillman, Nick Krishnamurthy, Rumaan Alam A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award in Fiction One of Barack Obama's Summer Reads A Best Book of the Year From: The Washington Post * Time * NPR * Elle * Esquire * Kirkus * Library Journal * The Chicago Public Library * The New York Public Library * BookPage * The Globe and Mail * EW.com * The LA Times * USA Today * InStyle * The New Yorker * AARP * Publisher's Lunch * LitHub * Book Marks * Electric Literature * Brooklyn Based * The Boston Globe A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong. From the bestselling author of Rich and Pretty comes a suspenseful and provocative novel keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped—and unexpected new ones are forged—in moments of crisis. Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they’ve rented for the week. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older couple—it’s their house, and they’ve arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area—with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service—it’s hard to know what to believe. Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple—and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one other?
