Adult

By peeling back the curtain of her syndicated advice column, Amy Dickinson reveals much of the inspiration and motivation that has fueled her calling. Through a series of linked essays, this moving narrative picks up where her earlier memoir left off. Exploring central themes of romance, death, parenting, self-care and spiritual awakening, this touching and heartfelt homage speaks to all who have faced challenges in the wake of life's twists and turns. From finding love in middle age to her storied experience with stepparenting to overcoming disordered eating to her final moments spent with her late mother, Dickinson's trademark humorous tone delivers punch and wit that will empower, entertain and heal.

Many people dream of escaping modern life. Most will never act on it --- but in 1986, 20-year-old Christopher Knight did just that when he left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine and disappeared into the woods. He would not have a conversation with another person for the next 27 years. Drawing on extensive interviews with Knight himself, journalist Michael Finkel shows how Knight lived in a tent in a secluded encampment, developing ingenious ways to store provisions and stave off frostbite during the winters. A former alarm technician, he stealthily broke into nearby cottages for food, books and supplies. Since returning to the world, he has faced unique challenges --- and compelled us to reexamine our assumptions about what makes a good life.

When Joan Juliet Buck became the first and only American woman ever to fill Paris Vogue's coveted position of Editor in Chief, she had the means to recreate for her aging father --- now a widower --- the life he’d enjoyed during his high-flying years, a splendid illusion of glamorous excess that could not be sustained indefinitely. Joan’s memoir tells the story of a life lived in the best places at the most interesting times: London and New York in the swinging 1960s, Rome and Milan in the dangerous 1970s, Paris in the heady 1980s and 1990s. But when her fantasy life at Vogue came to an end, she had to find out who she was after all those years of make-believe.

It is 1933, and Mikhail Bulgakov's enviable career is on the brink of being dismantled. His friend and mentor, the poet Osip Mandelstam, has been arrested, tortured and sent into exile. Meanwhile, a mysterious agent of the secret police has developed a growing obsession with exposing Bulgakov as an enemy of the state. To make matters worse, Bulgakov has fallen in love with the dangerously outspoken Margarita. Facing imminent arrest, infatuated with Margarita, he is inspired to write his masterpiece, The Master and Margarita, a satirical novel that is scathingly critical of power and the powerful.

For more than 40 years, Leo Durocher was at the forefront of the game, with a Zelig-like ability to be present as a player or manager for some of the greatest teams and defining baseball moments of the 20th century. As he did with Bill Veeck, Paul Dickson explores Durocher's life and times through primary source materials, interviews with those who knew him, and original newspaper files. LEO DUROCHER offers fascinating and fresh insights into the racial integration of baseball, Durocher's unprecedented suspension from the game, the two clubhouse revolts staged against him in Brooklyn and Chicago, and his vibrant life off the field.

Being a cop runs in Billy Harney's family. The son of Chicago's Chief of Detectives, there's nothing Billy won't give up for the job --- including his life. Left for dead alongside his tempestuous former partner and a hard-charging assistant district attorney out for blood, Billy miraculously survives. But he remembers nothing about the events leading up to the shootout. Charged with double murder and desperate to clear his name, Billy retraces his steps to get to the bottom of what happened. When he discovers the existence of a little black book that everyone who's anyone in Chicago will stop at nothing to get their hands on, Billy suspects it contains the truth that will either set him free...or confirm his worst fears.

The Great Fire rages through London, consuming everything in its path. Even the impregnable cathedral of St. Paul’s is engulfed in flames and reduced to ruins. Among the crowds watching its destruction is James Marwood, son of a traitor and reluctant government informer. In the aftermath of the fire, the body of a man is discovered in the ashes of St. Paul’s. There is a stab wound to his neck, and his thumbs have been tied behind his back. Marwood hunts the killer through London’s devastated streets where before too long a second murder is uncovered. At a time of dangerous internal dissent, Marwood’s investigation will lead him into treacherous waters --- and across the path of a determined and vengeful young woman.

Lucy and Owen have taken the plunge, trading in their crazy life in a cramped apartment for Beekman, a bucolic Hudson Valley exurb. When friends at a wine-soaked dinner party reveal they've made their marriage open, sensible Lucy balks. There's a part of her, though, that's intrigued. Why not try a short marital experiment? Six months, clear ground rules, zero questions asked. When an affair with a man in the city begins to seem more enticing than the happily-ever-after she's known for the past nine years, Lucy must decide what truly makes her happy --- "real life" or the "experiment"?

“We shall never tell.” Spurred by the cryptic phrase in a centuries-old letter, Emerson Mundy travels to her ancestral hometown to trace her past. In Mundy’s Landing, she connects with long-lost relatives --- and a closet full of skeletons going back centuries. In the year since former NYPD Detective Sullivan Leary solved the historic Sleeping Beauty Murders, she --- like the village itself --- has made a fresh start. But someone has unearthed blood-drenched secrets in a disembodied skull, and is hacking away at the Mundy family tree, branch by branch.

When Jess and Clare Martin move from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to their former college town in the Hudson River valley, they are hoping for rejuvenation --- of their marriage, their savings, and Jess' writing career. They take a caretaker's job at Riven House, a crumbling estate and the home of their old college writing professor. But there is a haunting pall that hangs over Riven House like a funeral veil. Soon, Clare begins to hear babies crying at night and see strange figures in fog at the edge of their property. Diving into the history of the area, she realizes that Riven House has a dark and anguished past. And whatever this thing is --- this menacing force that destroys the inhabitants of the estate --- it seems to be after Clare next.