Adult

Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us.

Mary Karr’s THE LIARS’ CLUB was credited with sparking the current memoir explosion. For 30 years, Karr has also taught the form, winning graduate teaching prizes for her highly selective seminar at Syracuse, where she mentored such future hit authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen and Koren Zailckas. In THE ART OF MEMOIR, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and “black belt sinner,” providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form.

The Hawthorne family has it all: great jobs, a beautiful house in one of the most affluent areas of northern California, and three charming kids. Then comes eldest daughter Angela’s senior year of high school. Suddenly, everyone is floundering. As Angela writes and rewrites her application for Harvard and struggles to maintain her position as valedictorian, Nora Hawthorne’s career hits a rough patch. As the secrets everyone has been keeping will come to light, it sets the family on a final collision course that will force them to reevaluate the value of achievement.

Timothy Warner, a PhD student who goes by the nickname “Moth,” discovers his uncle lying in a pool of blood. The police pronounce the death a suicide, but Moth refuses to believe that his uncle would take his own life. Devastated and confused, he calls on the only person he thinks he can trust: his ex-girlfriend, Andrea Martine. Each battling their inner demons, Moth and Andy travel into dark, unfamiliar territory, intent on finding out the truth about Ed’s death and circling ever closer to a devious mind that will flinch at nothing to achieve his own goal of revenge.

Is it violence if it’s virtual? The outspoken women targeted by the increasingly cruel internet trolls and bullies would probably say so. For some of them, the torrents of bile and vicious threats prove too much. They begin to silence themselves in a series of high-profile suicides. Or do they? Tony Hill isn’t convinced. But he’s the only one. Former cop Carol Jordan is too busy messing up her life to care. Until she gets an unexpected second chance. Now it’s game on, and the stakes have never been higher.

As the child of a German movie producer father who lives in Italy and a beautiful, artistically talented mother who resides in New York, Liliane’s life is divided between those two very different worlds. A shy and observant only child with a vivid imagination, Liliane uncovers the stories of family members as diverse as Moses Mendelssohn, Mary Queen of Scots and an early Mexican adventurer, and pieces together their vivid histories, through both World Wars and across continents.

Near the top of Mount Everest, on May 10, 1996, eight climbers died. It was the worst tragedy in the mountain's history. Lou Kasischke was there. AFTER THE WIND tells the harrowing story of what went wrong, as it has never been told before --- including why the climbers were so desperately out of time as the rogue storm struck. His personal story, captured in the title, tells about the intense moments near the top. These moments also revealed the love story that saved his life.

Taking its title from a group of stories that begin the book, BREAM GIVES ME HICCUPS moves from contemporary LA to the dorm rooms of an American college to ancient Pompeii, throwing the reader into a universe of social misfits, reimagined scenes from history, and ridiculous overreactions. In one piece, a tense email exchange between a young man and his girlfriend is taken over by the man’s sister, who is obsessed with the Bosnian genocide; in another, a college freshman forced to live with a roommate is stunned when one of her ramen packets goes missing.

Madeline King and Grace Pancik are best friends and the envy of Nantucket for their perfect marriages, their beautiful kids, and their Sunday night double dates with their devoted husbands. But this summer, something's changed, and if there's anything Nantucket likes better than cocktails on the beach at sunset, it's a good rumor. As the gossip escalates, and they face the possible loss of the happy lives they've worked so hard to create, Grace and Madeline try mightily to set the record straight --- but the truth might be even worse than rumor has it.

When she gets news of a possible inheritance left by a grandmother she’s never met, a broke and knocked-up Mattie Wallace jumps at this one last chance to turn her life around and drives 800 miles to her mother’s birthplace. But before long, it becomes clear that something terrible happened to her mother. The harder Mattie digs for answers, the more obstacles she encounters. Giving up isn’t an option. Uncovering what started her mother’s downward spiral might be the only way to stop her own.