Adult

As a follow-up to his 1999 autobiography, Arnold Palmer, a man considered by many to be the most important golfer in history, takes stock of the many experiences of his life, bringing new details and insights to some familiar stories and sharing new ones. Gracious, fair and a true gentleman, this book is Palmer’s gift to the world --- a treasure trove of entertaining anecdotes and timeless wisdom. 

The grandchild of Jewish immigrants from Hungary, Paul Simon has not only sold more than 100 million records, won 15 Grammy Awards and been installed into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame twice, but has also animated the meaning --- and flexibility --- of personal and cultural identity in a rapidly shrinking world. He has lived one of the most vibrant lives of modern times --- a story replete with tales of Carrie Fisher, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Dylan, Woody Allen, Shelley Duvall, Nelson Mandela, drugs, depression, marriage, divorce and more. Peter Ames Carlin's HOMEWARD BOUND is the first major biography of one of the most influential popular artists in American history.

Felix is at the top of his game as Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. His productions have amazed and confounded. Now he's staging a “Tempest” like no other: not only will it boost his reputation, it will heal emotional wounds. Or that was the plan. Instead, after an act of unforeseen treachery, Felix is living in exile in a backwoods hovel, haunted by memories of his beloved lost daughter, Miranda. And also brewing revenge. After 12 years, revenge finally arrives in the shape of a theatre course at a nearby prison. Here, Felix and his inmate actors will put on his “Tempest” and snare the traitors who destroyed him. It's magic! But will it remake Felix as his enemies fall?

To four girls who have nothing, their friendship is everything: they are each other’s confidants, teachers and family. The girls are all named Guinevere --- Vere, Gwen, Ginny and Win --- and it is the surprise of finding another Guinevere in their midst that first brings them together. They come to The Sisters of the Supreme Adoration convent by different paths, each with her own complicated, heartbreaking story that she safeguards. However, the girls are more than the sum of their parts, and together they form the all-powerful and confident The Guineveres, bound by the extraordinary coincidence of their names and girded against the indignities of their plain, sequestered lives.

At the height of the Korean War, President Harry S. Truman committed a gaffe that sent shock waves around the world. When asked by a reporter about the possible use of atomic weapons in response to China's entry into the war, Truman replied testily, "The military commander in the field will have charge of the use of the weapons, as he always has." This suggested that General Douglas MacArthur, the willful, fearless and highly decorated commander of the American and U.N. forces, had his finger on the nuclear trigger. A correction quickly followed, but the damage was done. Two visions for America's path forward were clearly in opposition, and one man would have to make way.

Alexander Bruno travels the world winning large sums of money from amateur “whales” who think they can challenge his peerless acumen at backgammon. But after a troubling run of bad luck in Singapore and Berlin --- perhaps brought on by his chance encounter with childhood acquaintance Keith Stolarsky and his girlfriend Tira Harpaz, or perhaps the emergence of a blot that distorts his vision --- Bruno passes out and is brought to the hospital. There, he’s given a depressing diagnosis and his only hope is to return to Berkeley, where he discovered his psychic abilities, and undergo experimental surgery paid for by the scheming Stolarsky.

Fifth-generation New Yorker, third-generation bartender and first-generation author Tara Clancy was raised in three wildly divergent homes: a converted boat shed in working class Queens, a geriatric commune of feisty, Brooklyn-born Italians, and a sprawling Hamptons estate she visited every other weekend. From scheming and gambling with her force-of-nature grandmother, to brawling with 11-year-old girls on the concrete recess battle yard of MS 172, to holding court beside Joey O’Dirt, Goiter Eddy and Roger the Dodger at her dad’s local bar, Tara leapfrogs across these varied spheres, delivering stories from each world with originality, grit and outrageous humor.

Lauren Gabriel spent many years of her childhood in foster homes, wishing her mother would come back for her. Now 20 years old, she still longs for a place that she can truly call home. When Lauren, a cashier, ends her shift one night, she finds herself driving aimlessly in order to avoid returning to her lonely apartment. And when she witnesses a car accident, she is suddenly pulled into the small town of Grandon to serve as a volunteer for the annual fundraiser for Glory’s Place, a center for single mothers and families who need assistance. Could this town and its people be the home she has always longed for?

The night a riot breaks out at the Capitol Theater movie house, you can bet that the Hunsenmeir sisters, Louise and Julia, are nearby. Known locally as Wheezie and Juts, the inimitable, irrepressible, distinctly freethinking sisters and their delightful circle of friends are coming of age in a shifting world --- and are determined to understand their place in it. Across town, the well-to-do Chalfonte siblings are preparing for the upcoming wedding of brother Curtis. But for youngest sister Celeste, the celebration brings about a change she never expected and a lesson about love she’ll not soon forget.

Chinese expatriate Feng Danlin is a fiercely principled reporter at a small news agency that produces a website read by Chinese all over the world. Danlin's explosive exposés have made him legendary among readers --- and feared by Communist officials. But his newest assignment may be his undoing: investigating his ex-wife, Yan Haili, an unscrupulous novelist who has willingly become a pawn of the Chinese government in order to realize her dreams of literary stardom. In outing Haili, Danlin is also provoking her powerful political allies, and he will need to draw on all of his journalistic cunning to come out of this investigation with his career --- and his life --- still intact.