The Gum Thief


Douglas Coupland - 2007
    In Douglas Coupland's ingenious new novel--sort of a Clerks meets Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf--we meet Roger, a divorced, middle-aged aisles associate at Staples, condemned to restocking reams of 20-lb. bond paper for the rest of his life. And Roger's co-worker Bethany, in her early twenties and at the end of her Goth phase, who is looking at fifty more years of sorting the red pens from the blue in aisle 6.One day, Bethany discovers Roger's notebook in the staff room. When she opens it up, she discovers that this old guy she's never considered as quite human is writing mock diary entries pretending to be her: and, spookily, he is getting her right.These two retail workers then strike up an extraordinary epistolary relationship. Watch as their lives unfold alongside Roger's work-in-progress, the oddly titled Glove Pond, a Cheever-era novella gone horribly, horribly wrong. Through a complex layering of narratives, The Gum Thief reveals the comedy, loneliness, and strange comforts of contemporary life.Coupland electrifies us on every page of this witty, wise, and unforgettable novel. Love, death and eternal friendship can all transpire where we least expect them ...and even after tragedy seems to have wiped your human slate clean, stories can slowly rebuild you.

Cooking with Fernet Branca


James Hamilton-Paterson - 2004
    Gerald's idyll is shattered by the arrival of Marta, on the run from a crime-riddled former soviet republic. A series of hilarious misunderstandings brings this odd couple into ever closer and more disastrous proximity.James Hamilton-Paterson's first novel, "Gerontius," won the Whitbread Award. He is an acclaimed author of nonfiction books, including "Seven-Tenths," "Three Miles Down," and "Playing with Water," He currently lives in Italy.

The Roaring Lambs: A Fable about Finding the Leader in You


Sreedhar Bevara - 2021
    

A Feeling Beyond Words


Abhishek Kothari - 2010
    Through this book of fiction, the author has made an attempt to answer several questions which we tend to place in front of others and which the world places in front of us. He has explicitly placed the phrases like "World says: Love can never be one sided, Where as some says: There is nothing called Love, But to the author: Love sees no side. It happens, to be the only Law of Life. And is the most Powerful thing one can possess". This romantic story whirls around a young boy who loved his dream girl in his thoughts and wanted to wait for her till his last breath. He was surrounded by many feelings but not the one that touched his heart and soul. He was heart broken and totally isolated. This was the moment when his lady love enters his life with with promises of eternity and endless love. His past experiences have made some unseen wounds on his heart and mind and before he could understand the selfless love of his Love, it was again too late. A beautiful piece encircled with love, hatred, frustration, depression and promises. This fiction book will let you know what love exactly is ? A truly romantic, heartwarming story for today's younger generation.

The Bonfire of the Vanities, Part 1


Tom Wolfe - 1990
    This gargantuan helping of the human comedy relates how he is devoured by the masses of New York, a city boiling over with the itch to grab it now.

Storm Riders


Craig Lesley - 2000
    Davis Prize for Fiction "Storm Riders examines the conflicted love of a single father struggling to raise his adopted Native American son, who was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. When a small girl mysteriously drowns near a student-housing complex, the boy is implicated and the father wrestles with his own doubt, guilt, and responsibility. Bringing to life the austere beauty of the Tlingit Alaskan village of the boy's family, as well as the highly educated pockets of the East Coast, Lesley vividly portrays a father and a son struggling to come to terms with each other and above all, with the truth. This novel, as "The Chicago Tribune noted, is "a powerful tale with a strong emotional core."

Then We Came to the End


Joshua Ferris - 2007
    The characters in Then We Came To The End cope with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, secret romance, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. By day they compete for the best office furniture left behind and try to make sense of the mysterious pro-bono ad campaign that is their only remaining "work."

Heroes of the Frontier


Dave Eggers - 2016
    Josie and her children's father have split up, she's been sued by a former patient and lost her dental practice, and she's grieving the death of a young man senselessly killed. When her ex asks to take the children to meet his new fiancee's family, Josie makes a run for it, figuring Alaska is about as far as she can get without a passport. Josie and her kids, Paul and Ana, rent a rattling old RV named the Chateau, and at first their trip feels like a vacation: They see bears and bison, they eat hot dogs cooked on a bonfire, and they spend nights parked along icy cold rivers in dark forests. But as they drive, pushed north by the ubiquitous wildfires, Josie is chased by enemies both real and imagined, past mistakes pursuing her tiny family, even to the very edge of civilization. A tremendous new novel from the best-selling author of The Circle, Heroes of the Frontier is the darkly comic story of a mother and her two young children on a journey through an Alaskan wilderness plagued by wildfires and a uniquely American madness.

River of Hidden Dreams


Connie May Fowler - 1994
    But more than that, she is afraid of not being alone. Ever since her mother and Native American grandmother died together when she was a child, dancing cheek-to-cheek in a saloon in the middle of a violent storm, Sadie hasn't let anyone get too close. Not even Carlos, a passionate Cuban who sees the rich soul that Sadie tries to hide from herself.Cynical and loveless, she becomes obsessed with learning more about her unacknowledged identity, torn apart by tragic family legends she can't quite believe. And although she tries to fight it, she half suspects that with Carlos's help, she could find the truth of the past, and it could set her free...."A fluid, fun read--a story of self-discovery told by a woman haunted by female forebears while struggling to learn love....A work of accomplished introspection."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

Now We Shall Be Entirely Free


Andrew Miller - 2018
    He is Captain John Lacroix, home from Britain's disastrous campaign against Napoleon's forces in Spain.Gradually Lacroix recovers his health, but not his peace of mind - he cannot talk about the war or face the memory of what happened in a village on the gruelling retreat to Corunna. After the command comes to return to his regiment, he sets out instead for the Hebrides, with the vague intent of reviving his musical interests and collecting local folksongs.Lacroix sails north incognito, unaware that he has far worse to fear than being dragged back to the army: a vicious English corporal and a Spanish officer are on his trail, with orders to kill. The haven he finds on a remote island with a family of free-thinkers and the sister he falls for are not safe, at all.

Finding Family


Giacomo Giammatteo - 2013
    But in war-ravaged Sicily, food was scarce, and his parents were as scarred as the land. His father said they must move to America so they could start over and be a family once again. Dominic got a new start, and he got a new family—but not the kind of family he expected.

Critical Care: A Novel


Richard Dooling - 1992
    Peter Werner Ernst is an internal medicine resident at a major hospital's intensive care unit. He functions on eight hours of sleep for every three shifts at work. Overseeing the care of eight patients, Dr. Ernst's job is to keep death at bay--at least until the day shift comes on, and any potential death goes on someone else's record.When Felicia Potter enters the ward to visit her comatose father, Dr. Ernst sees the opportunity to spice up his grim routine with a little romance. What he cannot see is how his relationship with the young attractive model will call into question his integrity, his dedication to his career, and just how far he will go for the sake of his lust.

EMP Antediluvian Purge


S.A. Ison - 2018
    Now, home on leave to visit his dying grandfather, Harry is shocked to learn the old man had secrets -- and before passing away, he tells Harry two of them. One will change Harry forever and one just may save his life when a massive EMP hits and rips apart the fabric of the U.S. and perhaps the world, trapping him in the one place he thought he'd left behind. His small town turns in on itself. Is this the work of the ubiquitous KKK, a homegrown terrorist group right from the heart of Harry's world? Time is running out for Harry and his family. Some secrets cannot and should not remain hidden, but will he have to risk everything to set the world right?

Acting Up


Libby Purves - 2004
    When the second Iraq war breaks out, it is only natural that their newest generations should be represented in the ranks of British officers: at 24, Lieutenant Susie Anderson delays her wedding to handsome fellow-officer Callum and joins her regiment on the hot sands of Kuwait. Brother Francis, meanwhile, continues his cabaret career as Madam Fanny Fantoni, drag chanteuse and net-stockinged vamp, with a stinging line in repartee and the most remarkable falsetto top C in Clapham. As the neighbours agree, it must be terribly difficult for their poor parents, especially the General. Real difficulties come, though, when Callum comes home injured, altered and bitter, and Susie and her family feel as though their lives are shattered. The solution to this tangle comes from the most unlikely source of all. Set against a background of desert war, seedy clubs, a hippie sailing-ship and quiet English village life, Libby Purves' latest novel is a commentary on changing social roles, the nature of courage and the futility of prejudice.

Storm of Arrows


Paul Bannister - 2019
    For fans of Bernard Cornwell and Michael Jecks.' Richard Foreman 1330. Edward III of England calls on Lancastrian baron and longbow archer Sir Thomas Holland to capture Roger Mortimer, the regent who usurped the young king’s throne and murdered his father. Holland and his bowmen next help butcher the Scots at Dupplin Moor and destroy the French fleet at Sluys. Yet the archer's greatest challenge is still to come. The Black Prince and Holland lead a great raid across Normandy. But not all goes according to plan. Two French armies pin the heavily-outnumbered English between the Seine and Somme. Their one hope of escape is to cross a dangerous ford. Thomas personally leads the vanguard and although he engineers the defeat of a waiting enemy force, there is still blood to be spilled. The archer and the Prince must still face a desperate battle against the might of France - at a village called Crecy. Recommended for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Michael Jecks and Robyn Young. The archer and the Prince must still face a desperate battle against the might of France - at a village called Crecy. Paul Bannister is a journalist and author. He has written for national newspapers in Britain and America, covering assignments in about 40 countries. His is also the author of the Forgotten Emperor and Crusader series.