Book picks similar to
Book of Love by William Kotzwinkle
american-literature
bio-memoir
english-literature
nostalgia
Namako: Sea Cucumber
Linda Watanabe McFerrin - 1998
In Namako: Sea Cucumber, Ellen, a 10-year-old multiracial girl, no longer a child, not quite a teenager, finds herself exploring an unfamiliar world of spirits and ancestors, ghost stories and secrets. Leaving the United States, Ellen and her family travel to Japan to care for an ailing grandmother Ellen has never met. In Tokyo, Ellen is sent to stay with and learn from her seemingly disapproving grandmother. When her father buys a house in northern rural Japan, Ellen and her grandmother rejoin the family. While there, Ellen's life changes rapidly - she discovers a talent for art, gains a best friend, and grows to love her grandmother. Honoring a last request, Ellen and her mother journey with her grandmother to their ancestral home. There, finally, Ellen begins to integrate her family's history with her own future.
Anything Goes: A novel
Madison Smartt Bell - 2002
Jesse’s talent is for music, which has given him a livelihood and a home as a bass player in a bar band called Anything Goes. Band life offers the opportunity for the dregs of experience (hangovers, mildewed hotel rooms), and the antics of his band mates (all of them older than he is; some of them wiser, some not) offer more schooling in hard knocks.Anything Goes tells Jesse’s story over the course of a year, during which he finds his life slowly being tempered by the unexpected: by a dad who wants to make up and be part of Jesse’s life; by a female lead singer who suddenly makes the band sound a lot better than they have any right to be; and by the confidence Jesse begins to feel in his own musical talent.A complete departure from the sweeping historical vision of Madison Smartt Bell’s Haitian novels and the gritty cynicism of his intense urban dramas, Anything Goes confirms Bell as one of the most versatile, most gifted, most surprising novelists of his generation.
The Father Costume: Ben Marcus and Matthew Ritchie
Ben Marcus - 2002
Witness a father who takes his two boys out to sea, in flight from some menace at home, thus launching their adventures in a strange and dangerous territory. Artist Matthew Ritchie's striking images blend scientific diagramming with vivid, colorful renderings of the apocalypse, while writer Ben Marcus's cold prose plumbs the inner workings of two boys caught out at sea with a father whose costumes grow increasingly menacing. In this collaborative work, Ritchie's and Marcus's shared obsessions of mythology, physics and ancient texts have produced a conjunction of text and image in which people themselves are merely costumes for the darker needs that drive them.
The Company She Keeps
Mary McCarthy - 1942
Based loosely on the author's own life, the book follows a young bohemian woman, Margaret Sargent, through her experiences and lost loves in a time of coming war.
The Fountain
Kathryn Le Veque - 2018
With her trusty French Bulldog, Stanley, by her side, Kiki buys on old fixer-upper and has big dreams of turning the home into a bed and breakfast. Unfortunately, the old home, known as Agua de la Vida, is more work than she anticipated. When a sexy contractor gives her an estimate to restore the place, Kiki is in a quandary - she is attracted to the blond, blue-eyed hunk, but repelled by the money he estimates a restoration of the house will eat up. What's a girl to do? Trace Rocklin is that sexy contractor. Or, at least, that's what he pretends he is. The truth is that Trace was a CIA assassin, now returning to his home town to try and forget that part of his life by going to work in the family construction business. But trouble follows him, even as he falls for the owner of a derelict old house. Soon, Kiki is in danger and Trace is drawn back into the world of intrigue he's trying so hard to forget. In order to save Kiki, and himself, he must temporarily return to that job he's trying to forget - he must become that assassin again. It's flirty fun with a hint of terror in Pasadena, California as Kiki and Trace fall in love, and Trace must reconcile the deadly part of his past once and for all. The Fountain is a stand alone contemporary novella linked to the de Lohr Dynasty
F*ck Yes or No: A Counterintuitive Approach to Your Relationships and Maybe Your Life
Mark Manson - 2019
Gift of Power: The Life and Teachings of a Lakota Medicine Man
Archie Fire Lame Deer - 1992
Archie's compelling narrative recaptures his boyhood years under the tutelage of his medicine-man grandfather on a South Dakota farm. We follow him from Catholic school runaway to Army misfit, from bartender to boozer, from Hollywood stuntman to chief rattlesnake catcher of the state of South Dakota. And we exult with him when he comes home to the world of spirit.
The Proud Princess
Barbara Cartland - 1976
Knew how it felt to be hungry, mistreated, defenseless.But now Ilona was going home. All the hardships of exile were behind her. She was going back to Dabrozka, the tiny kingdom whose throne would someday be hers. She was returning triumphant--the beloved Princess of a proud and independent people who needed her desperately.Ilona was Dabrozka's last hope for salvation. She alone could save her subjects from donimation if she married a man who despised her. A man with whom Ilona was already falling wildly in love.
Cairnaerie
M.K.B. Graham - 2017
Geneva Snow commits the unforgivable Southern sin. No longer the apple of her father’s eye, she is a pariah, defying her society's most sacrosanct rule. To protect her—and hoping for a change of heart—her shattered yet steadfast father hides her at Cairnaerie, his mountain estate. But his iron-willed daughter is unrepentant. After years of solitude, an older and wiser Geneva is finally mellowing, and she is desperate to leave a legacy worthy of the father she loved and lost. To that end, she engages an unwitting young history professor for help to escape Cairnaerie long enough to attend the wedding of her granddaughter—a girl dangerously unaware of her lineage. But when a postman’s malevolence and a colleague’s revenge converge, Geneva's long-kept secret is exposed. For a second time, she faces a calamity of her own making. Only this time, there is no place to hide.
A Shore Thing
Scotty T - 2016
Long before starring in the show, Scotty was living life to the fullest and getting up to all sorts. In this hilarious page turner, Scotty T will not only let slip scandalous secrets from Geordie Shore, Ex on the Beach and Celebrity Big Brother, but will open up about his antics when the cameras stop rolling. But it's not all sex, fights and getting mortal! Scotty also reveals a surprisingly softer side and opens up about living with ADHD, coping with the breakdown of his parents’ marriage and picking up the pieces after the loss of a loved one. The rascal also reflects on the lasses who have tried and failed to tame his heart and introduces us to the love of his life who has been living in the shadows all this time. And if all that wasn't enough, Scotty explains why he loves maths so much, what it was like to join the Neighbours cast, plus finally admits what he really thinks about his castmates, why he was nearly kicked off the show by producers and what life has in store for him after Geordie Shore.
Perseverance
Kristin Peck - 2014
Now, graduating from business school, newly married, Kristin is ready to take the next step of starting a family. But when Kristin’s first pregnancy ends with a miscarriage, she is devastated. When her second pregnancy does as well, Kristin and her husband Bob turn to in vitro fertilization – and are heartbroken again after a third miscarriage. Undaunted, they turn to alternate options, including surrogacy and adoption, but face setbacks at every turn, some so unthinkable that they never could have been predicted. In the most extreme of circumstances, when all of our careful plans are thrown out the window, how do we persevere? In spite of the pain and sorrow of the many years spent trying to start their family, Kristin and Bob remain positive, loving, and driven – and learn in their ultimately rewarding journey that life’s joys come more from the unexpected than from the expected.100% of Kristin Peck’s proceeds from the sale of Perseverance will be donated to Family and Children's Agency.Kristin Peck is thrilled to be the working mother of two amazing children. She keeps herself sane by belting out her favorite pop and country songs while running and completing triathlons, and is proud to have recently completed her first marathon. She is currently EVP, Group President of Zoetis, Inc., the world's largest animal health company. Kristin received her bachelor’s from Georgetown and her MBA from Columbia Business School. Kristin, her husband, two children and their dog live in CT. Perseverance is her first book.Cover design by Hannah Perrine Mode.
The Gangsta That Stole My Heart
Nique Luarks - 2019
Her quirky attitude and sunny disposition all come naturally on her quest to find inner peace. The only forcing drive that can seem to knock her off her square is True Jones. Violent, egocentric, and just plain inconsiderate, he’s the only man she’s ever been in love with, and he has been her BFF since grade school. One night of selfish passion changes things dramatically, causing a crack in the foundation they’ve built on trust and understanding. True continues with his womanizing ways, leaving Chance to question his loyalty. Unsure of where their spiraling friendship is headed, they find themselves lost in love. Holding onto the little hope she has left, Chance must decide if giving her all to a gangsta is worth the risk.
I Love You, More: Short Stories of Addiction, Recovery, and Loss From the Family's Perspective
Blake E. Cohen - 2019
Society offers little to educate the public or de-stigmatize the problem of addiction.I Love You More is distinct and unique from other books on the market on addiction as it is meant to be an emotional education on the family systems affected by addiction using three, fictional short stories, all with very different endings.These three powerful stories have common threads of hope, pain, mistrust, grief, worry, change, acceptance, belief, and the constant presence of varying levels of sanity across a broad spectrum.I Love You More offers insight into the various perspectives and experiences of family members who have dealt with the harrowing disease of addiction. The goal of this book is to be the conduit that allows you to enter the body and mind of a substance abuser and their family, to see the world through their eyes as they navigate their way through one of the most heart-breaking and gut-wrenching hardships they will ever face.The author, Blake Cohen, is a recovering alcoholic and addict himself for multiple years. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and is a Certified Additions Professional. He currently works in the field of substance abuse treatment in the position of National Outreach Manager. Blake’s role allows him to be of assistance to families, and their loved ones, as they begin their journey into recovery. Blake is also a public speaker using his experience and education to help bring understanding to the public regarding the disease of addiction.From mothers to fathers to siblings to aunts and uncles to grandmothers and grandfathers, as well the individuals struggling themselves, these stories contain emotional tidbits from the author’s years in the treatment field, interviews with families, and his own personal experiences.The hardest thing for a person to do is watch a loved one slowly kill themselves while you standby; unable to do anything about it. For the family, addiction is frustrating, heart-wrenching, exhausting and time-consuming. It can lead to bouts of anger followed by bouts of hysteria. It can leave you bed-ridden and paralyzed by insurmountable sadness and depression. Although we cannot make our loved ones better, we can learn to take care of ourselves through it all. This book is emotional support for anyone and everyone whose lives have been touched by addiction.