Adult

John Waters is putting his life on the line. Armed with wit, a pencil-thin mustache and a cardboard sign that reads “I’m Not Psycho,” he hitchhikes across America from Baltimore to San Francisco, braving lonely roads and treacherous drivers. But who should we be more worried about --- the delicate film director with genteel manners or the unsuspecting travelers transporting the Pope of Trash?

Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat is home away from home for the inseparable Plainview, Indiana, trio of Odette, Clarice and Barbara Jean. Dubbed “the Supremes” by high school pals in the tumultuous 1960s, they weather life’s storms together for the next four decades. Through marriage, children, happiness and the blues, these strong, funny women gather each Sunday at the same table at Earl’s diner for delicious food, juicy gossip, occasional tears and uproarious banter.

In bold and spirited prose featuring his irreverent wit and heartbreaking honesty, Frank McCourt records the trials, triumphs and surprises he faces in public high schools around New York City. His methods anything but conventional, McCourt creates a lasting impact on his students through imaginative assignments, singalongs and field trips.

Why does knitting occupy a place in the hearts of so many writers? What’s so magical and transformative about yarn and needles? How does knitting help us get through life-changing events and inspire joy? In KNITTING YARNS, 27 writers --- including Anita Shreve, Elizabeth Berg, Ann Patchett and Barbara Kingsolver --- tell stories about how knitting healed, challenged, or helped them to grow.

In A STORY LATELY TOLD, Anjelica Huston described her enchanted childhood in Ireland and her glamorous but troubled late teens in London. That memoir of her early years ended when she stepped into Hollywood. In WATCH ME, Huston tells the story of falling in love with Jack Nicholson and her adventurous, turbulent, high-profile, spirited 17-year relationship with him and his intoxicating circle of friends.

GIVE ME A TICKET TO CHILDHOOD is the story of a man looking back on his life. As we learn of the small miracles and tragedies that made up the narrator’s life --- the misadventures and the misdeeds --- we meet his long-lost friends, none of whom can forget how rich their lives once were. And even if Nguyen Nhat Anh can’t take us back to our own childhoods, he captures those innocent times with a great deftness.

In STALIN, Stephen Kotkin offers a biography that, at long last, is equal to this shrewd, sociopathic, charismatic dictator in all his dimensions. The character of Stalin emerges as both astute and blinkered, cynical and true believing, people oriented and vicious, canny enough to see through people but prone to nonsensical beliefs. STALIN also gives an intimate view of the Bolshevik regime’s inner geography of power, bringing to the fore fresh materials from Soviet military intelligence and the secret police.

SOMETHING RICH AND STRANGE showcases Ron Rash’s artistry and craftsmanship in 30 stories culled from his previously published collections NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY, BURNING BRIGHT, CHEMISTRY and THE NIGHT NEW JESUS FELL TO EARTH. Each work of short fiction demonstrates Rash’s dazzling ability to evoke the heart and soul of this land and its people --- men and women inexorably tethered to the geography that defines and shapes them.

Anne Lamott writes about faith, family and community in essays that are both wise and irreverent. In SMALL VICTORIES, Lamott offers a new message of hope that celebrates the triumph of light over the darkness in our lives. Our victories over hardship and pain may seem small, but they change us. She writes of forgiveness, restoration and transformation, how we can turn toward love even in the most hopeless situations, how we find the joy in getting lost and our amazement in finally being found.

Cádiz, 1811: Bombs are falling. Paranoia reigns in a city under siege, but it is worsened when the bodies of murdered women begin to turn up in abandoned corners of the city. Something dark is certainly afoot --- and this shadowy evil seems to have a message for merciless police commissioner Rogelio Tizón. His determination to find the killer will take him on a twisting path through the intertwined lives of those trapped together in the city.