A funny and poignant collection of true stories about women coming of age that for once isn't about finding a date. Gilman's memoir of growing up on Manhattan's upper Upper West Side in the '70s starts slowly but gathers momentum. Readers who find themselves drifting during...  more

A funny and poignant collection of true stories about women coming of age that for once isn't about finding a date. Gilman's memoir of growing up on Manhattan's upper Upper West Side in the '70s starts slowly but gathers momentum. Readers who find themselves drifting during Gilman's reveries on lying during show-and-tell will find themselves pleasantly riveted by the time she's getting in touch with her roots as a reporter for the Jewish Week. Gilman, author of 2001's Kiss My Tiara, a women's self-help guide, makes common scenarios fresh with humor and wry social commentary; on the first day of school, she quickly learns "boys might be fighters, but girls could be terrorists."  When her brother asks their dad why their Jewish family celebrates Christmas, she doesn't miss a beat: " 'Because your grandmother's a Communist and your mother loves parties,' said my father. 'Now eat your supper.' " These one-liners don't detract, however, from a serious and moving look at one family's efforts to keep itself intact through divorce and other life challenges. After her parents separate, Gilman, then in her mid-20s, fears she and her brother had spent their childhoods in happy oblivion while their parents were "spellbound with misery." Probably not: Gilman's recollections of moving bumpily toward adulthood are keenly observant.  

Theatrical classic, filmed by famed director Max Ophüls as La Ronde, unfolds in a series of 10 interlinked scenes between two people who are about to make love. One of the lovers in each scene returns to partner a different lover in the next, until the encounters come full circle.

Love. Violence. Destiny. These powerful themes ricochet through Lorenzo Carcaterra's new novel like bullets from a machine gun. In Gangster, he surpasses even his bestselling Sleepers to create a brutal and brilliant American saga of murder, forgiveness, and redemption.Born in the midst of...  more

Love. Violence. Destiny. These powerful themes ricochet through Lorenzo Carcaterra's new novel like bullets from a machine gun. In Gangster, he surpasses even his bestselling Sleepers to create a brutal and brilliant American saga of murder, forgiveness, and redemption.Born in the midst of tragedy and violence and raised in the shadow of a shocking secret, young Angelo Vestieri chooses to flee both his past and his father to seek a second family--the criminals who preside over early 20th century New York. In his bloody rise from soldier to mob boss, he encounters ever more barbaric betrayals--in friendship, in his brutal business, in love-- yet simultaneously comes to understand the meaning of loyalty, the virtue of relationships, and gains a perspective on the lonely, if powerful, life he has chosen.As the years pass, as enemies are made and defeated, as wars are fought and won, the old don meets an abandoned boy who needs a parent as much as protection. By taking Gabe under his wing and teaching him everything he knows, Angelo Vestieri will learn, in the winter of his life, which is greater: his love for the boy he cherishes, or his need to be a gangster and to live by the savage rules he helped create.A sweeping panoramic with riveting characters, a unique understanding of the underworld philosophy, and a relentless pace, Gangster travels through the time of godfathers and goodfellas to our own world of suburban Sopranos. But this is more than just an authentic chronicle of crime. Setting a new standard for this acclaimed author, Gangster is a compassionate portrait of one man's fight against his fate--and an unforgettable epic of a family, a city, a century.From the Hardcover edition.

Join the folks in Summerlin, North Carolina, as they attend to the sad, crazy, but inevitable business of passing on -- and passing down. For a whole pack of relatives is waiting to see who dies first. Will it be Glenn or Laura Bales? The order will determine which children from which marriage...  more

Join the folks in Summerlin, North Carolina, as they attend to the sad, crazy, but inevitable business of passing on -- and passing down. For a whole pack of relatives is waiting to see who dies first. Will it be Glenn or Laura Bales? The order will determine which children from which marriage will get the land. And if that isn't enough intrigue, hell-raising black sheep Uncle Grove McCord has decided that Summerlin should be his final resting place -- and he's about to arrive still very much alive....

A beautiful executive is robbed and murdered. With her last breath, she identifies her assailant. Or does she? Damon Tucker, a kid from Harlem, is quickly charged with the murder, but he maintains his innocence from the beginning. Soon the only person standing between Damon and a possible death...  more

A beautiful executive is robbed and murdered. With her last breath, she identifies her assailant. Or does she? Damon Tucker, a kid from Harlem, is quickly charged with the murder, but he maintains his innocence from the beginning. Soon the only person standing between Damon and a possible death sentence is his public defender Arch Gold, a tough courtroom veteran who knows every move in the game of criminal justice. Gold discovers that nothing is what it seems and that the rules of evidence don't always apply. Meet an unforgettable cast of characters on both sides of the law as Gold faces the biggest challenge of his career, risking his reputation -- and his life -- to find the truth.

"POWERFUL...A PAGE-TURNER OF SUBSTANCE... When [F.B.I. agent] Ana Grey is given a high-profile case involving a Hollywood actress who claims that her doctor has hooked her on illegal drugs, Ana's own puzzling history collides with her investigation and she must face an uncomfortable...  more

"POWERFUL...A PAGE-TURNER OF SUBSTANCE... When [F.B.I. agent] Ana Grey is given a high-profile case involving a Hollywood actress who claims that her doctor has hooked her on illegal drugs, Ana's own puzzling history collides with her investigation and she must face an uncomfortable truth about her family and herself." --People  

My name is Holly. This story is about me -- a writer who's way behind on her deadline. But, honestly, how can I concentrate on my work when my fiftieth birthday's rushing at me like a freight train, my hormones are making me feel like a Szechuan flambe, and my eighty-year-old...  more

My name is Holly. This story is about me -- a writer who's way behind on her deadline. But, honestly, how can I concentrate on my work when my fiftieth birthday's rushing at me like a freight train, my hormones are making me feel like a Szechuan flambe, and my eighty-year-old mother's biting her nurses? Not to mention the fact that my daughter's just begun applying to colleges (none of which are within a thousand-mile radius of home), and lately my husband's been such an irritating, finger-pointing stinker that I've found myself dreaming of ways to spend his insurance money . . . My name is Holly.   This book tells my story -- a coming-of-middle-age story.

Set on affluent Long Island, Aloft follows the life of a suburban, upper-middle-class man during a time of family crisis. Jerry Battle's favorite diversion is to fly his small plane over the neighboring towns and villages. When his daughter and her fiance arrive from Oregon to announce their...  more

Set on affluent Long Island, Aloft follows the life of a suburban, upper-middle-class man during a time of family crisis. Jerry Battle's favorite diversion is to fly his small plane over the neighboring towns and villages. When his daughter and her fiance arrive from Oregon to announce their marriage plans, he looks back on his life and faces his disengagement with it -- his urge to fly solo -- and the people he loves. Chang-Rae Lee burst on the scene with Native Speaker, which won numerous awards, including the PEN/Hemingway Award. His second novel, A Gesture Life, established him as one of the preeminent writers of his generation. Now, with Aloft, Lee has expanded his range and proves himself a master storyteller, able to observe his characters' flaws and weaknesses and, at the same time, celebrate their humanity. Aloft is an unforgettable portrait, filled with vitality and urgency, of a man who has secured his life's dreams but who must now figure out its meaning.

The Ransomes had been burgled. "Robbed," Mrs. Ransome said. "Burgled," Mr. Ransome corrected. Premises were burgled; persons were robbed. Mr. Ransome was a solicitor by profession and thought words mattered. Though "burgled" was the wrong word too. Burglars select;...  more

The Ransomes had been burgled. "Robbed," Mrs. Ransome said. "Burgled," Mr. Ransome corrected. Premises were burgled; persons were robbed. Mr. Ransome was a solicitor by profession and thought words mattered. Though "burgled" was the wrong word too. Burglars select; they pick; they remove one item and ignore others. There is a limit to what burglars can take: they seldom take easy chairs, for example, and even more seldom settees. These burglars did. They took everything. This swift-moving comic fable will surprise you with its concealed depths. When the sedate Ransomes return from the opera to find their Notting Hill flat stripped absolutely bare--down to the toilet paper off the roll (a hard-to-find shade of forget-me-not blue)--they face a dilemma: Who are they without the things they've spent a lifetime accumulating? Suddenly the world is full of unlimited and frightening possibility. But just as they begin adjusting to this giddy freedom, a newfound interest in sex, and a lack of comfy chairs, a surreal reversal of events causes them to question their assumptions yet again. The Ransomes' bafflement is the reader's delight. Alan Bennett's gentle but scathing wit, unerring ear for dialogue, and sense of the absurd make The Clothes They Stood Up In a memorable exploration of where in life true riches lie.

Welcome to Schooled, where even homework has a price. Ivy-League educated Anna Taggert believes that enriching the minds of America's youth is the greatest gift, and that landing a job at an elite Manhattan school is her lucky break. But when the grim reality of the private school...  more

Welcome to Schooled, where even homework has a price. Ivy-League educated Anna Taggert believes that enriching the minds of America's youth is the greatest gift, and that landing a job at an elite Manhattan school is her lucky break. But when the grim reality of the private school hierarchy settles in, not to mention that of her meager compensation, Anna realizes that passion might not be worth the sacrifice. Ever the optimist, Anna forges on until she discovers that the papers she grades are not the work of her students, but of their high-priced, college-educated tutors. After uncovering this underground economy, where a teacher can make the same hourly rate as a Manhattan attorney, Anna is seduced by lucrative offers -- one after another. Teacher by day, tutor by night, she starts to sample the good life her students enjoy: binges at Barneys, dinners at the Waverly Inn, and a new address on Madison Avenue. Until, that is, Anna gets schooled.

In this "stunningly lyrical" (Time) novel, Katherine Mosby weaves a haunting story of a woman trapped in the wrong place and time. "She's not crazy, she's just educated," is how she is described. Abandoned by her husband, the outspoken Vienna Daniels is forced to make...  more

In this "stunningly lyrical" (Time) novel, Katherine Mosby weaves a haunting story of a woman trapped in the wrong place and time. "She's not crazy, she's just educated," is how she is described. Abandoned by her husband, the outspoken Vienna Daniels is forced to make a life for herself and her children in a small West Virginia town that neither understands nor accepts her...  

The most disastrous family reunion in the history of fiction. The Drummond family, reunited for the first time in years, has gathered near Cape Canaveral to watch the launch into space of their beloved daughter and sister, Sarah. Against the Technicolor unreality of Florida's finest tourist...  more

The most disastrous family reunion in the history of fiction. The Drummond family, reunited for the first time in years, has gathered near Cape Canaveral to watch the launch into space of their beloved daughter and sister, Sarah. Against the Technicolor unreality of Florida's finest tourist attractions, the Drummonds stumble into every illicit activity under the tropical sun-kidnapping, blackmail, gunplay, and black market negotiations, to name a few. But even as the Drummonds' lives spin out of control, Coupland reminds us of their humanity at every turn, hammering out a hilarious masterpiece with the keen eye of a cultural critic and the heart and soul of a gifted storyteller. He tells not only the characters' stories but also the story of our times--thalidomide, AIDS, born-again Christianity, drugs, divorce, the Internet-all bound together with the familiar glue of family love and madness.

In the suspense-charged tradition of Patricia Cornwell, Anna Salter draws from her professional expertise to introduce forensic psychologist Michael Stone, a sharply witty, courageous heroine who champions the victims of the most devastating crimes. Called to testify in a high profile...  more

In the suspense-charged tradition of Patricia Cornwell, Anna Salter draws from her professional expertise to introduce forensic psychologist Michael Stone, a sharply witty, courageous heroine who champions the victims of the most devastating crimes. Called to testify in a high profile custody battle, Michael delivers a professional assessment that shocks her Vermont community: a prominent, well-respected surgeon likely has sexually abused his son and daughter. In the midst of a nightmarish trial, Michael's testimony is ignored, the case is abruptly closed, and two innocent children fall victim to an unjust system. Then a devastating murder sends the case spiraling in a new direction ... Desperate to sort fact from fiction, Michael taps the mind of jailed perp Alex B Willy, whose unthinkable obsessions may help her unlock the motives behind the brutal crime. But in the eyes of a killer, she has crossed over the line: someone is closing in on Michael, invading her guarded private life with deadly intent ...

"Hours away from execution by the state of Oklahoma, Marjorie Standiford is dictating her memoirs. . . . Marjorie, whose robbery spree with her husband, Lamont, and her lover, Natalie, splattered a trail of blood across the Southwest, steadfastly maintains that she didn't kill anybody. Now, to...  more

"Hours away from execution by the state of Oklahoma, Marjorie Standiford is dictating her memoirs. . . . Marjorie, whose robbery spree with her husband, Lamont, and her lover, Natalie, splattered a trail of blood across the Southwest, steadfastly maintains that she didn't kill anybody. Now, to assure her young son's future, the woman called the Speed Queen--for both her drug and driving style--is fulfilling her deal with the big-time writer who has paid handsomely for her story. It's worth every penny. Liberally jazzed with humor, both gallows and otherwise, Majorie's account combines the manic rush of Natural Born Killers with the dreamy lyricism of Badlands. . . . An unflinching take on the land of fast food and fast cars, where everyone is juiced to the max--and no one is really going anywhere."--PeopleA PEOPLE PAGE-TURNER OF THE WEEK

George Hall is an unobtrusive man. A little distant, perhaps, a little cautious, not quite at ease with the emotional demands of fatherhood or of manly bonhomie. ?The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.? Some things in life can?t be ignored, however: his...  more

George Hall is an unobtrusive man. A little distant, perhaps, a little cautious, not quite at ease with the emotional demands of fatherhood or of manly bonhomie. ?The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.? Some things in life can?t be ignored, however: his tempestuous daughter Katie?s deeply inappropriate boyfriend Ray, for instance, or the sudden appearance of a red circular rash on his hip. At 57, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden and enjoying the freedom to be alone when he wants. But then he runs into a spot of bother. That red circular rash on his hip: George convinces himself it?s skin cancer. And the deeply inappropriate Ray Katie announces he will become her second husband. The planning for these frowned-upon nuptials proves a great inconvenience to George?s wife, Jean, who is carrying on a late-life affair with her husband?s ex-colleague. The Halls do not approve of Ray, for vague reasons summed up by their son Jamie?s observation that Ray has ?strangler?s hands.? Jamie himself has his own problems ? his tidy and pleasant life comes apart when he fails to invite his lover, Tony, to Katie?s wedding. And Katie, a woman whose ferocious temper once led to the maiming of a carjacker, can?t decide if she loves Ray, or loves the wonderful way he has with her son Jacob. Unnoticed in the uproar, George quietly begins to go mad. The way these damaged people fall apart ? and come together ? as a family is the true subject of Haddon?s hilarious and disturbing portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Ellen Rimbauer became the young bride of Seattle industrialist John Rimbauer, and began keeping a remarkable diary. This diary became the secret place where Ellen could confess her fears of the new marriage, her confusion over her emerging sexuality, and the...  more

At the turn of the twentieth century, Ellen Rimbauer became the young bride of Seattle industrialist John Rimbauer, and began keeping a remarkable diary. This diary became the secret place where Ellen could confess her fears of the new marriage, her confusion over her emerging sexuality, and the nightmare that her life would become. The diary not only follows the development of a girl into womanhood, it follows the construction of the Rimbauer mansion -- called Rose Red -- an enormous home that would be the site of so many horrific and inexplicable tragedies in the years ahead. The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red is a rare document, one that gives us an unusual view of daily life among the aristocracy in the early 1900s, a window into one woman's hidden emotional torment, and a record of the mysterious events at Rose Red that scandalized Seattle society at the time -- events that can only be fully understood now that the diary has come to light. Edited by Joyce Reardon, Ph.D. as part of her research, the diary is being published as preparations are being made by Dr. Reardon to enter Rose Red and fully investigate its disturbing history.

Five Oaks, Michigan is not exactly where Saul and Patsy meant to end up. Both from the East Coast, they met in college, fell in love, and settled down to married life in the Midwest. Saul is Jewish and a compulsively inventive worrier; Patsy is gentile and cheerfully pragmatic. On Saul’s...  more

Five Oaks, Michigan is not exactly where Saul and Patsy meant to end up. Both from the East Coast, they met in college, fell in love, and settled down to married life in the Midwest. Saul is Jewish and a compulsively inventive worrier; Patsy is gentile and cheerfully pragmatic. On Saul’s initiative (and to his continual dismay) they have moved to this small town–a place so devoid of irony as to be virtually “a museum of earlier American feelings”–where he has taken a job teaching high school.Soon this brainy and guiltily happy couple will find children have become a part of their lives, first their own baby daughter and then an unloved, unlovable boy named Gordy Himmelman. It is Gordy who will throw Saul and Patsy’s lives into disarray with an inscrutable act of violence. As timely as a news flash yet informed by an immemorial understanding of human character, Saul and Patsy is a genuine miracle.From the Trade Paperback edition.

This humorous novella looks at a young couple who reaches their first anniversary to discover that marriage is not what they anticipated. They are forced to take a close and sobering look at their own behavior, at their marriage--and what marriage is really all about. A light-hearted AND serious...  more

This humorous novella looks at a young couple who reaches their first anniversary to discover that marriage is not what they anticipated. They are forced to take a close and sobering look at their own behavior, at their marriage--and what marriage is really all about. A light-hearted AND serious look at the roller coaster ride of marriage.

Nathan Clark's gravestone offers a short and hopeful summary: At rest. But Nathan is not at rest, and knows he won't be until he finds out why he died. Privy now to the innermost thoughts and feelings of his family and friends--confessions that are raw, brutal, and unexpected--Nathan...  more

Nathan Clark's gravestone offers a short and hopeful summary: At rest. But Nathan is not at rest, and knows he won't be until he finds out why he died. Privy now to the innermost thoughts and feelings of his family and friends--confessions that are raw, brutal, and unexpected--Nathan spends the day of his wake getting to know the living as he has never known them before: His father struggles with a legacy of family tragedy; his wife with the baggage of a doomed affair; his older daughter with her burgeoning sexuality and adolescent confusion. But why isn't Nathan's young daughter Lois at the wake? Who are the two strangers at the funeral, and why does their presence fill him with dread?