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Editorial Content for They May Not Mean To, But They Do

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Jana Siciliano

Old age is not pretty in America. In many other countries, societies value the wizened elders of the community and take care of them. In the US, it’s every old folk for himself or herself. Read More

Teaser

Joy Bergman is not slipping into old age with the quiet grace that her children, Molly and Daniel, would prefer. Her marriage to their father, Aaron, has lasted through health and dementia, as well as some phenomenally lousy business decisions. The Bergman clan has always stuck together, growing as it incorporated in-laws, ex-in-laws and same-sex spouses. But families don't just grow, they grow old. Cathleen Schine's novel is an intergenerational story about searching for where you belong as your family changes with age.

Promo

Joy Bergman is not slipping into old age with the quiet grace that her children, Molly and Daniel, would prefer. Her marriage to their father, Aaron, has lasted through health and dementia, as well as some phenomenally lousy business decisions. The Bergman clan has always stuck together, growing as it incorporated in-laws, ex-in-laws and same-sex spouses. But families don't just grow, they grow old. Cathleen Schine's novel is an intergenerational story about searching for where you belong as your family changes with age.

About the Book

From one of America’s greatest comic novelists, a hilarious new novel about aging, family, loneliness and love

The Bergman clan has always stuck together, growing as it incorporated in-laws, ex-in-laws, and same-sex spouses. But families don’t just grow, they grow old, and the clan’s matriarch, Joy, is not slipping into old age with the quiet grace her children, Molly and Daniel, would have wished. When Joy’s beloved husband dies, Molly and Daniel have no shortage of solutions for their mother’s loneliness and despair, but there is one challenge they did not count on: the reappearance of an ardent suitor from Joy’s college days. And they didn’t count on Joy herself, a mother suddenly as willful and rebellious as their own kids.

The New York Times bestselling author Cathleen Schine has been called “full of invention, wit, and wisdom that can bear comparison to [ Jane] Austen’s own” (The New York Review of Books), and she is at her best in this intensely human, profound, and honest novel about the intrusion of old age into the relationships of one loving but complicated family. THEY MAY NOT MEAN TO, BUT THEY DO is a radiantly compassionate look at three generations, all coming of age together.

Audiobook available, narrated by Cynthia Darlow

Editorial Content for I'm Thinking of Ending Things

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

Give yourself room, time and expectation to read I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS twice. At least. Even after the second time through, you may love or hate this debut novel by Iain Reid, either because you understand what has happened within its pages or you still do not have a clue. Read More

Teaser

Debut novelist Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear and the limitations of solitude. Reminiscent of Jose Saramago’s early work, Michel Faber’s cult classic UNDER THE SKIN and Lionel Shriver’s WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS is an edgy, haunting debut. Tense, gripping and atmospheric, it pulls you in from the very first page and never lets you go.

Promo

Debut novelist Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear and the limitations of solitude. Reminiscent of Jose Saramago’s early work, Michel Faber’s cult classic UNDER THE SKIN and Lionel Shriver’s WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS is an edgy, haunting debut. Tense, gripping and atmospheric, it pulls you in from the very first page and never lets you go.

About the Book

I’m thinking of ending things. Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It’s always there. Always.

Jake once said, “Sometimes a thought is closer to truth, to reality, than an action. You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.”

And here’s what I’m thinking: I don’t want to be here.

In this “dark and compelling…unputdownable” (Booklist, starred review) literary thriller, debut novelist Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear, and the limitations of solitude. Reminiscent of Jose Saramago’s early work, Michel Faber’s cult classic UNDER THE SKIN, and Lionel Shriver’s WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS is an edgy, haunting debut. Tense, gripping and atmospheric, this novel “packs a big psychological punch with a twisty story line and an ending that will leave readers breathless” (Library Journal, starred review).

Audiobook available, read by Candace Thaxton

Editorial Content for As Good as Gone

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

AS GOOD AS GONE almost got past me. Not for any particular reason, and certainly not due to lack of effort by its venerable publisher, Algonquin Books, which is seemingly incapable of releasing a bad book. No, it was more an issue of my eyes being bigger than my head: so many books, so little time, and yes, a slow but steady decline in my ability to read as quickly as I used to. I am glad, though, that I pressed myself into service for this novel, and for its stellar author, Larry Watson. Read More

Teaser

It’s 1963, and Calvin Sidey, one of the last of the old cowboys, has long ago left his family to live a life of self-reliance out on the prairie. He’s been a mostly absentee father and grandfather until his estranged son asks him to stay with his grandchildren, Ann and Will, for a week while he and his wife are away. Calvin agrees to return, but trouble soon comes to the door when a boy’s attentions to 17-year-old Ann become increasingly aggressive and a group of reckless kids portend danger for 11-year-old Will. Calvin knows only one way to solve problems: the Old West way, in which scores are settled and ultimatums are issued, and your gun is always loaded.

Promo

It’s 1963, and Calvin Sidey, one of the last of the old cowboys, has long ago left his family to live a life of self-reliance out on the prairie. He’s been a mostly absentee father and grandfather until his estranged son asks him to stay with his grandchildren, Ann and Will, for a week while he and his wife are away. Calvin agrees to return, but trouble soon comes to the door when a boy’s attentions to 17-year-old Ann become increasingly aggressive and a group of reckless kids portend danger for 11-year-old Will. Calvin knows only one way to solve problems: the Old West way, in which scores are settled and ultimatums are issued, and your gun is always loaded.

About the Book

Calvin Sidey is always ready to run, and it doesn’t take much to set him in motion. As a young man, he ran from this block, from Gladstone, from Montana, from this country. From his family and the family business. He ran from sadness, and he ran from responsibility. If the gossip was true, he ran from the law.

It’s 1963, and Calvin Sidey, one of the last of the old cowboys, has long ago left his family to live a life of self-reliance out on the prairie. He’s been a mostly absentee father and grandfather until his estranged son asks him to stay with his grandchildren, Ann and Will, for a week while he and his wife are away. So Calvin agrees to return to the small town where he once was a mythic figure, to the very home he once abandoned.  

But trouble soon comes to the door when a boy’s attentions to 17-year-old Ann become increasingly aggressive and a group of reckless kids portend danger for 11-year-old Will. Calvin knows only one way to solve problems: the Old West way, in which scores are settled and ultimatums are issued and your gun is always loaded. And though he has a powerful effect on those around him --- from the widowed neighbor who has fallen under his spell to Ann and Will, who see him as the man who brings a sudden and violent order to their lives --- in the changing culture of the 1960s, Calvin isn’t just a relic; he’s a wild card, a danger to himself and those who love him.

In AS GOOD AS GONE, Larry Watson captures our longing for the Old West and its heroes, and he challenges our understanding of loyalty and justice. Both tough and tender, it is a stunning achievement.

Audiobook available, narrated by Richard Poe

Editorial Content for Goodnight, Beautiful Women

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Maya Gittelman

Anna Noyes' GOODNIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN is an exemplary debut. Hers are the short stories you use to teach the craft, to exemplify how language can function at its best, its sparsest and sharpest. Shifting through 11 pieces, the collection cuts and vibrates, dark and melodic: a discovery, a reckoning. Read More

Teaser

Moving along the Maine Coast and beyond, the interconnected stories in GOODNIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN bring us into the sultry, mysterious inner lives of New England women and girls as they navigate the dangers and struggles of their outer worlds. Debut novelist Anna Noyes explores the ruptures and vicissitudes of growing up and growing old, and shines a light on our most uncomfortable impulses while charting the depths of our murky desires.

Promo

Moving along the Maine Coast and beyond, the interconnected stories in GOODNIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN bring us into the sultry, mysterious inner lives of New England women and girls as they navigate the dangers and struggles of their outer worlds. Debut novelist Anna Noyes explores the ruptures and vicissitudes of growing up and growing old, and shines a light on our most uncomfortable impulses while charting the depths of our murky desires.

About the Book

An electrifying debut by sensational new literary talent, Anna Noyes, GOODNIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN observes the residents of small New England coastal towns in tales that probe boundaries of familial intimacy, coming-of-age sexuality, desirous girlhood and lost love. With novelistic breadth and a quicksilver emotional intelligence, Noyes explores the ruptures and vicissitudes of growing up and growing old, and shines a light on our most uncomfortable impulses while masterfully charting the depths of our murky desires. Dark and brilliant, rhythmic and lucid, GOODNIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN marks the arrival of a fearless and unique new young voice in American fiction.

Audiobook available, narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan and Eva Kaminski

Editorial Content for A Dangerous Age

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Bronwyn Miller

“All happy friends are alike, but unhappy friends are unhappy in awful ways.” Author Kelly Killoren Bensimon gives her modern-day spin on the opening line of Leo Tolstoy’s ANNA KARENINA in her first novel about four fabulous friends living out their dreams (or trying to) during one sweltering New York City summer. But trying to carve out a fabulous life means something much different than it did in your 20s, when sneaking into a glamourous after-party and staying out until dawn meant you were living the dream. Read More

Teaser

Four sophisticated best friends who once took New York by storm are secretly falling apart at the seams. Lucy’s marriage to a renowned artist is slowly crumbling, with an explosive secret that threatens them both. Sarah, in the middle of auditioning for an auspicious new television show, realizes that her socialite standing is in jeopardy after countless disastrous events. Billy has finally left her former life behind to become a highbrow cuisine artist. And Lotta, a knockout downtown art dealer, spends her free time guzzling cocktails in both the grittiest and most expensive clubs around town --- but now, she’s taken it a little too far.

Promo

Four sophisticated best friends who once took New York by storm are secretly falling apart at the seams. Lucy’s marriage to a renowned artist is slowly crumbling, with an explosive secret that threatens them both. Sarah, in the middle of auditioning for an auspicious new television show, realizes that her socialite standing is in jeopardy after countless disastrous events. Billy has finally left her former life behind to become a highbrow cuisine artist. And Lotta, a knockout downtown art dealer, spends her free time guzzling cocktails in both the grittiest and most expensive clubs around town --- but now, she’s taken it a little too far.

About the Book

Couture royalty meets downtown grit and heady artists mingle with freewheeling socialites in A DANGEROUS AGE, a sophisticated, indulgent and delicious novel of contemporary New York City that women of all ages will devour.

It’s the dog days of a sweltering Manhattan summer, and four sophisticated best friends who once took New York by storm are secretly falling apart at the seams. Lucy’s marriage to a renowned artist is slowly crumbling, with an explosive secret that threatens them both. Sarah, in the middle of auditioning for an auspicious new television show, realizes that her socialite standing is in jeopardy after countless disastrous events. Billy --- a queen in the kitchen --- has finally left her former life behind to become a highbrow cuisine artist. And Lotta, a knockout downtown art dealer, spends her free time guzzling cocktails in both the grittiest and most expensive clubs around town --- but now, she’s taken it a little too far.

In this addicting and refreshing comedy of manners reminiscent of Edith Wharton, Lucy, Sarah, Billy and Lotta go to all ends to hide their troubles in a city that worships only the young, twentysomething it-girl. But in the end, there’s no denying that these women have all entered a very dangerous age...and who knows how they’ll emerge on the other side.

Audiobook available, narrated by Jorjeana Marie

Editorial Content for The Maximum Security Book Club: Reading Literature in a Men's Prison

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Jane Krebs

Mikita Brottman, a professor of humanities at Maryland College Institute of Art in Baltimore, selected pieces of fiction for her newly formed book club at Jessup Correctional Institution, 45 minutes from her home. In THE MAXIMUM SECURITY BOOK CLUB, she shows us the progress that both she and her nine (plus) convicted felons made over their discussions during the almost three years they met. Read More

Teaser

On sabbatical from teaching literature to undergraduates, and wanting to educate a different kind of student, Mikita Brottman starts a book club with a group of convicts from the Jessup Correctional Institution in Maryland. She assigns them 10 dark, challenging classics that don’t flinch from evoking the isolation of the human struggle, the pain of conflict and the cost of transgression. Although Brottman is already familiar with these works, the convicts open them up in completely new ways. Their discussions may “only” be about literature, but for the prisoners, everything is at stake.

Promo

On sabbatical from teaching literature to undergraduates, and wanting to educate a different kind of student, Mikita Brottman starts a book club with a group of convicts from the Jessup Correctional Institution in Maryland. She assigns them 10 dark, challenging classics that don’t flinch from evoking the isolation of the human struggle, the pain of conflict and the cost of transgression. Although Brottman is already familiar with these works, the convicts open them up in completely new ways. Their discussions may “only” be about literature, but for the prisoners, everything is at stake.

About the Book

A riveting account of the two years literary scholar Mikita Brottman spent reading literature with criminals in a maximum-security men’s prison outside Baltimore, and what she learned from them --- ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK meets READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN.

On sabbatical from teaching literature to undergraduates, and wanting to educate a different kind of student, Mikita Brottman starts a book club with a group of convicts from the Jessup Correctional Institution in Maryland. She assigns them 10 dark, challenging classics --- including Conrad’s HEART OF DARKNESS, Shakespeare’s MACBETH, Stevenson’s DR. JEKYLL and MR. HYDE, Poe’s story “The Black Cat,” and Nabokov’s LOLITA --- books that don’t flinch from evoking the isolation of the human struggle, the pain of conflict, and the cost of transgression. Although Brottman is already familiar with these works, the convicts open them up in completely new ways. Their discussions may “only” be about literature, but for the prisoners, everything is at stake.

Gradually, the inmates open up about their lives and families, their disastrous choices, their guilt and loss. Brottman also discovers that life in prison, while monotonous, is never without incident. The book club members struggle with their assigned reading through solitary confinement; on lockdown; in between factory shifts; in the hospital; and in the middle of the chaos of blasting televisions, incessant chatter and the constant banging of metal doors.

Though THE MAXIMUM SECURITY BOOK CLUB never loses sight of the moral issues raised in the selected reading, it refuses to back away from the unexpected insights offered by the company of these complex, difficult men. It is a compelling, thoughtful analysis of literature --- and prison life --- like nothing you’ve ever read before.

Audiobook available, read by Beverley Crick

Editorial Content for Falling: A Daughter, a Father, and a Journey Back

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

I’ve been a longtime admirer of picture book author and illustrator Elisha Cooper, whose books include the beautifully impressionistic BEACH and MAGIC THINKS BIG, about a cat who has an outsize imagination but lacks follow-through. So when I saw that Cooper was publishing a memoir for adults, FALLING, I was intrigued. It turns out that this is his  second memoir: his first, CRAWLING, was a chronicle of his first year of fatherhood. Read More

Teaser

Elisha Cooper spends his mornings writing and illustrating children's books, his afternoons playing with his two daughters. But when he discovers a lump in five-year-old Zoë's midsection as she sits on his lap at a Chicago Cubs game, everything changes. In FALLING, Elisha writes about what it took for him and his wife to preserve a sense of normalcy and joy in their daughters' lives; how the family emerged from this experience profoundly changed; and how we are all transformed by the fear and hope we feel for those we love.

Promo

Elisha Cooper spends his mornings writing and illustrating children's books, his afternoons playing with his two daughters. But when he discovers a lump in five-year-old Zoë's midsection as she sits on his lap at a Chicago Cubs game, everything changes. In FALLING, Elisha writes about what it took for him and his wife to preserve a sense of normalcy and joy in their daughters' lives; how the family emerged from this experience profoundly changed; and how we are all transformed by the fear and hope we feel for those we love.

About the Book

Elisha Cooper spends his morn­ings creating children’s books and his afternoons playing with his two daughters. But when he discovers a lump in five-year-old Zoë’s midsection as she sits on his lap at a Chicago Cubs game, everything changes. Surgery, sleepless nights, months of treatment, a drumbeat of worry. Even as the family moves to New York and Zoë starts kindergarten, they must navigate a new normal: school and soccer and hot chocolate at the local café, inter­rupted by anxious visits to the hospital. Elisha and his wife strive to help their daughters maintain a sense of stability and joy in their family life. And he tries to understand this new world --- how it changes art and language and laughter --- as he holds on to the protective love he feels for his child.
 
With the observant eye of an artist and a remarkable sense of humor, Elisha captures his family’s journey through a perilous time and, in the process, shows how we are all transformed by the fear and hope we feel for those we love.

Editorial Content for A Million Years in a Day: A Curious History of Everyday Life from the Stone Age to the Phone Age

Reviewer (text)

Barbara Bamberger Scott

Romping through ancient times in the framework of a single day in the modern Western world, British public historian Greg Jenner invites us to question our place in world history and scratch our heads. Who, for example, really invented dentistry? Nine thousand years ago, in Pakistan, someone was making holes in teeth with a flint-tipped bow drill to relieve the pain of cavities. And what about clothing? Read More

Teaser

Who invented beds? When did we start cleaning our teeth? How old are wine and beer? Which came first: the toilet seat or toilet paper? What was the first clock? Every day, from the moment our alarm clock wakes us in the morning until our head hits our pillow at night, we all take part in rituals that are millennia old. Structured around one ordinary day, A MILLION YEARS IN A DAY reveals the astonishing origins and development of the daily practices we take for granted. In this entertaining romp through human history, Greg Jenner explores the gradual --- and often unexpected --- evolution of our daily routines.

Promo

Who invented beds? When did we start cleaning our teeth? How old are wine and beer? Which came first: the toilet seat or toilet paper? What was the first clock? Every day, from the moment our alarm clock wakes us in the morning until our head hits our pillow at night, we all take part in rituals that are millennia old. Structured around one ordinary day, A MILLION YEARS IN A DAY reveals the astonishing origins and development of the daily practices we take for granted. In this entertaining romp through human history, Greg Jenner explores the gradual --- and often unexpected --- evolution of our daily routines.

About the Book

Who invented beds? When did we start cleaning our teeth? How old are wine and beer? Which came first: the toilet seat or toilet paper? What was the first clock?

Every day, from the moment our alarm clock wakes us in the morning until our head hits our pillow at night, we all take part in rituals that are millennia old. Structured around one ordinary day, A MILLION YEARS IN A DAY reveals the astonishing origins and development of the daily practices we take for granted. In this gloriously entertaining romp through human history, Greg Jenner explores the gradual --- and often unexpected --- evolution of our daily routines.

This is not a story of wars, politics or great events. Instead, Jenner has scoured Roman rubbish bins, Egyptian tombs and Victorian sewers to bring us the most intriguing, surprising and sometimes downright silly historical nuggets from our past.

Drawn from across the world, spanning a million years of humanity, this book is a smorgasbord of historical delights. It is a history of all those things you always wondered about --- and many you have never considered. It is the story of your life, one million years in the making.

Audiobook available, narrated by Matthew Lloyd Davies

Editorial Content for Willnot

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

It doesn’t get any better than this. One can say that about quite a bit of James Sallis’ work, from the science fiction short stories that he wrote in the mid-1960s when I was just a wee lad (okay, maybe not so wee) right up to his mystery, suspense and crime caper novels of this century. Even his books are short by modern standards, usually clocking in at around 200 pages, and his output appears in fits and starts. But whatever he sacrifices in quantity is made up for in the quality of his work. Read More

Teaser

In the woods outside the town of Willnot, the remains of several people have suddenly been discovered, unnerving the community and unsettling Dr. Lamar Hale, the town's all-purpose general practitioner, surgeon and town conscience. At the same time, Bobby Lowndes --- his military records disappeared, being followed by the FBI --- mysteriously reappears in his hometown, at Hale's door. Over the ensuing months, the daily dramas Hale faces as he tends to his town and to his partner, Richard, collide with the inexplicable vagaries of life in Willnot. And when a gunshot aimed at Lowndes critically wounds Richard, Hale's world is truly upended.

Promo

In the woods outside the town of Willnot, the remains of several people have suddenly been discovered, unnerving the community and unsettling Dr. Lamar Hale, the town's all-purpose general practitioner, surgeon and town conscience. At the same time, Bobby Lowndes --- his military records disappeared, being followed by the FBI --- mysteriously reappears in his hometown, at Hale's door. Over the ensuing months, the daily dramas Hale faces as he tends to his town and to his partner, Richard, collide with the inexplicable vagaries of life in Willnot. And when a gunshot aimed at Lowndes critically wounds Richard, Hale's world is truly upended.

About the Book

In his celebrated career, James Sallis has created some of the most finely drawn protagonists in crime fiction, all of them thoughtful observers of the human condition: Lew Griffin, the black New Orleans private investigator; retired detective John Turner; the unnamed wheelman in Drive. Dr. Lamar Hale will now join the ranks of Sallis's finest characters.

In the woods outside the town of Willnot, the remains of several people have suddenly been discovered, unnerving the community and unsettling Hale, the town's all-purpose general practitioner, surgeon and town conscience. At the same time, Bobby Lowndes --- his military records disappeared, being followed by the FBI --- mysteriously reappears in his hometown, at Hale's door. Over the ensuing months, the daily dramas Hale faces as he tends to his town and to his partner, Richard, collide with the inexplicable vagaries of life in Willnot. And when a gunshot aimed at Lowndes critically wounds Richard, Hale's world is truly upended.

In his inimitable spare style, James Sallis conjures indelible characters and scenes that resonate long after they appear. "You live with someone year after year, you think you've heard all the stories," Lamar observes, "but you never have."

Audiobook available, read by Kevin Kenerly

Editorial Content for In Love and War

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Judy Gigstad

In the spring of 1937, Great Britain teems with the various political energies seeking domination over one another. Esmond Lowndes, son of Sir Lionel Lowndes, indulges in a forbidden relationship at Cambridge and is expelled from the school. Both he and his best friend, Philip, are banished from England; Sir Lionel grimly sends Esmond off to Florence, Italy, where he will set up a radio broadcast system to bolster Fascist ideology. Esmond’s mother seals his humiliation by feeding a bonfire with his books, literary treasures he had cherished. Read More

Teaser

Desperate to prove himself to his politician father, Esmond Lowndes is sent to Italy to forge ties between the British Union of Fascists and Mussolini's government. In Florence, he discovers art and passion amongst the eccentric expatriates and glamorous locals. But with the coming of war, Esmond chooses to leave his past behind and joins the Florentine resistance. Finding himself closely bound to his comrades and unexpectedly in love, Esmond becomes involved in undercover operations and assassination plots, culminating in a final mission of extraordinary daring.

Promo

Desperate to prove himself to his politician father, Esmond Lowndes is sent to Italy to forge ties between the British Union of Fascists and Mussolini's government. In Florence, he discovers art and passion amongst the eccentric expatriates and glamorous locals. But with the coming of war, Esmond chooses to leave his past behind and joins the Florentine resistance. Finding himself closely bound to his comrades and unexpectedly in love, Esmond becomes involved in undercover operations and assassination plots, culminating in a final mission of extraordinary daring.

About the Book

Desperate to prove himself to his politician father, Esmond Lowndes is sent to Italy to forge ties between the British Union of Fascists and Mussolini's government. In Florence, he discovers art and passion amongst the eccentric expatriates and glamorous locals. But with the coming of war, Esmond chooses to leave his past behind and joins the Florentine resistance. Finding himself closely bound to his comrades and unexpectedly in love, Esmond becomes involved in undercover operations and assassination plots, culminating in a final mission of extraordinary daring.