The Calling is the story of Blackford "Toad" Turlow, an ambitious, impressionable young man who aspires to be a writer. The voice in his head is that of Eldon Odom, a famous - sometimes infamous - novelist to whom Toad apprentices himself. In the beginning, Toad devours every morsel from Odom, both words and actions. But along the way he learns far more than the art of crafting fiction. He discovers that behind Odom's genius is a warped human ...
Two brothers-in-lawNOtto, an editor of food books, and Volya Rinpoche, spiritual teacherNtake a road trip in a rattling pickup from Seattle to the family farm in North Dakota. Along the way they have a series of experiences all aimed at bringing Otto a deeper peace of mind.
Music In and On the Air is a wonderful collection of radio pieces from Pulitzer Prize winning critic Lloyd Schwartz. The book explores contemporary classics, musical theatre and film, and includes almost all the reviews Schwartz has presented since becoming the classical music critic for NPR's Fresh Air. Offering up reflections on performers and composers, from Bolet to Horowitz, Cole Porter to Elvis Costello, Casals to Toscanini-Schwartz brin...
Merullo looks carefully at those connections and at the reasons why people find themselves irresistibly attracted to golf. Drawing on the triumphs and travails of playing partners, friends, and family members, and mixing in anecdotes from his own adventures, he explores the notion of a true goal of golf, a hidden attraction that has more to do with deep peace and satisfaction than with the dream of playing on the PGA tour.
In swift, lyrical prose, Nova weaves disparate lives together into a novel that makes utter beauty out of the gritty and grotesque. This is a story about people who are willing to take the chance they have been waiting for all their lives--men and women trying to live up to their dreams. Nova's eighth novel is so good that it reminds one of the great "Day of the Locust."--"Library Journal.
Alice and JJ are in love, and amid their tender revelations of intimacy, JJ's former stint in a mental institution comes to light, as well as his sexual relationships with Bird, a young woman, and with Kin, a man. It was a three-way love that saved his life. When Bird and Kin reenter JJ's and Alice's life--Kin now living with AIDS--Alice must redefine the meaning and the boundaries of love.
From chapters entitled "Writer's Block" to "Finding a Mentor" to "Impatience and Rejection, " Merullo covers these topics with the insight, empathy, and encouragement of an author who has been there, in this no-nonsense handbook and guide for aspiring and established writers alike. His works have been praised by "The Boston Globe" and "Kirkus Reviews.
Leo Markin, a young U.S. Marine and Vietnam combat veteran who survived the war, found himself so changed by the experience that he simply could not find a way to return to his home, family, and his fiance in a working class city of his birth outside of Boston. He is torn between the peaceful, natural way of life on the island of Losapas and the rougher rules of his upbringing. 304 pp.
A family rallies around an errant son, even as a long-hidden secret that has touched all their lives comes to the surface. "The Boston Globe" selected "Revere Beach Boulevard" as one of its Top 100 Essential New England Books and author Richard Russo called it , " . . a great novel --ambitious, heartfelt, and oh-so skilled." 322 pp.
Merullo skillfully explores the lives of ordinary people caught in a dramatic transference of power . . . it is smoothly written and multifaceted, solidly depicting the isolation and poverty of a city far removed from Moscow and insightfully exploring the psyches of individuals caught in the conflicts between their ideals and their careers."--"Publishers Weekly
Merullo shares his spiritual, intellectual, and emotional discoveries, writing about his relationship with his father, his working class upbringing and upper class education, the early years of his marriage, and the gift of children. 204 pp.
In these remarkable short stories by a native South African, men and women play out dramas that echo the tumultuous din of their homeland. With a particular emphasis on exiles, these stories examine a nation breaking apart along the fault lines of race, belief, and circumstance.
Here, in girls' own voices, is what they think about, care about, and want to share. Driscoll surveyed hundreds of girls from around the world regarding their experiences with friends, family, teachers, boys, and other topics.
For Merelene Durham it's been fifteen years of coping, of determination not to lose her purchase on this world: a world that has become almost unendurable since her rakish husband, Mayfield, fled after encephalitis turned their son Roland's mind into a strange, shell-holed country. Blind Tongues is the story of what happens when Mayfield unexpectedly returns, and his conviction that a newly made fortune can make Roland whole again, of a brilli...
When Ben and Marie meet, it is with all the unstoppable quality of a force of nature: at first, they are just pleased with each other's company, a kind of innocent companionship they both crave, but soon they enter into a secret bond. "Tornado Alley" is a compelling novel about love and loss, honor and passion, and the mysteries of the human heart.
Set in New England and Alabama, "Fighting Gravity" begins as an exploration of the complexities of love between an older man and younger woman, and ultimately raises larger questions of human connection, commitment, faith, marital and parental responsibility, and the nature of fate.
The mother of a childhood friend summons Nick Blud back to his old Ukranian-American New Jersey neighborhood, where something unspeakable has just happened, in this harrowing tale about friendship and love, America, and the immigrant's dream.
OTorra's evocation of the . . . twisted white-trash milieu is brilliantly done, creating an uneasy portrait of life on the fringes of sanity and society.ON"London Times
