Book picks similar to
Key West Tales by John Hersey


fiction
short-stories
fiction-classical
travel

The Junket (Kindle Single)


Mike Albo - 2011
    He lands an enviable gig writing about shopping and fashion for the city’s major newspaper, but an ill-fated promotional junket gets Albo into hot water. He becomes a gossip item and finds himself caught in an acrimonious war between Old and New Media. Here's a gimlet-eyed account of the back-biting media scene, a glimpse into the inner workings of the fashion crowd, and a candid portrait of what it takes to survive as a writer in today’s chattering and watchful New York City."I was perilously close to exposing a secret underground economy of promotion: favors and junkets and banquets and gifts that keeps the city in motion, and keeps underpaid writers at work. Basically, I became the Silkwood of Swag."

How Best to Avoid Dying


Owen Egerton - 2007
    With razor wit and compassionate insight, Egerton has a crafted a work that brilliantly explores the pain and wonder of life, knowing that with the turn of any corner death could be panhandling for your soul.

Send Me


Patrick Ryan - 2006
    But her ex-husbands linger in the background while her four children spin away to their own separate futures, each carrying the baggage of a complex family history. Matt serves as caretaker to the ailing father who abandoned him as a child, while his wild teenage sister, Karen, hides herself in marriage to a born-again salesman. Joe, a perpetual outsider, struggles with a private sibling rivalry that nearly derails him. And then there’s the youngest, Frankie, an endearing, eccentric sci-fi freak who’s been searching since childhood for intelligent life in the universe–and finds it.Written with wry affection, and with compassion for every character in its pages, Send Me is a wholly original, haunting evocation of family love, loss, and, ultimately, forgiveness.From the Hardcover edition.

Gaslight In Page Street


Harry Bowling - 1991
    William’s loyalty has worn thin over the years but he cannot break the ties with Galloway because times are hard and the house in which he lives belongs to him. Carrie Tanner grows up in the heart of a poor yet loving family, but as she becomes a young woman she becomes involved in the Suffragette movement. The times are changing – and quickly. Will this close-knit community be able to pull together or will it be torn apart?

Now You See Her


Paul J. Teague - 2019
    While the authorities draw a blank, Cory picks up the cold trail and finds there's something sinister going on in Shallow Falls--something he'll regret ever getting involved in. Now You See Her is an exciting new thriller about pain, loss and regret. The conspiracies deepen with each turn of the page, leading readers on a relentless pursuit for answers until the very end.

Gym Rat & The Murder Club: Two New Stories (Kindle Single) (Crime Fiction Academy Presents...)


Lawrence Block - 2016
    Not quite what he expected, and not for the faint of heart.Founded in 2012, The Center for Fiction's Crime Fiction Academy is the first ongoing program exclusively dedicated to crime writing in all its forms. Hone your skills with bestselling crime fiction authors Alison Gaylin and Jason Starr. Attend master classes with crime fiction greats like Mary Higgins Clark, Lee Child, Harlan Coben, Linda Fairstein, Nelson DeMille, Michael Connelly, Lisa Unger, and many more. Students receive a Writers’ Studio membership with access to our extensive circulating collection, and have the opportunity to read their work to an audience filled with editors, agents, and publishing professionals at our seasonal Crime Fiction Slam. Not in New York? Check centerforfiction.org for information about our online classes.

Tomorrowland


Joseph Bates - 2013
    At its core, the world of Tomorrowland is our own, though reflected off a funhouse mirror--revealing our hopes and deepest fears to comic, heartbreaking effect.

Some Fun


Antonya Nelson - 2006
    With her newest collection, Nelson once again proves herself worthy of her stellar reputation, delivering seven taut, striking stories and a brilliant novella, all exploring the tensions of troubled family relations.Nelson is an extraordinary chronicler of the fraught relationships between parents and children and husbands and wives. With her particular understanding of the threats and vulnerabilities of wild adolescence, as well as the complicated, persistent love that often lies dormant beneath the drama of rebellion, she illuminates the hidden corners of her characters' lives.The shy, shoplifting sixteen-year-old protagonist in the title novella is trying to understand how to become an adult while going through a year of family disaster. We watch as she dabbles in the same adult behaviors that so repulse her about her parents (binge drinking, sex) while maintaining so much of her adolescent insecurity and confusion. "Dick" is a moving story about a mother who, having lost her daughter to the vicissitudes of adolescence, has a compulsion to protect her innocent, preadolescent son from the aggressive and encroaching post-9/11 adult world. The homeless teen at the heart of "Eminent Domain" is a pampered Houston rich girl who has, for her own reasons, taken to the streets.Radiating an emotional intensity that unifies the entire collection, each of Nelson's stories both captivates and unnerves. As her characters run the gauntlet of often bewildering family tensions and trauma, she alternates hope and despair, resentment and love, in perfectly recognizable proportions.Weaving wonderful observation with quick wit and striking insight, "Some Fun" is a timely and provocative inventory of the state of family in America -- and proof of why Nelson is one of the most important writers at work today.

Bluebeard's Egg


Margaret Atwood - 1983
    Here is the familiar outer world of family summers at remote lakes, winters of political activism, and seasons of exotic friends, mundane lives, and unexpected loves. But here too is the inner world of hidden places and all that emerges from them-the intimately personal, the fantastic, the shockingly real...whether it's what lives in a mysterious locked room or the secret feelings we all conceal. In this dramatic and far-ranging collection, Margaret Atwood proves why she is a true master of the genre.

Fever


John Edgar Wideman - 1989
    By turns subtle and intense, disturbing and elusive, the stories in this collection are ultimately connected by themes of memory and loss, reality and fabrication, and by a richless of language that rests lightly on its carefully foundation.

All That Was Lost


Alison May - 2018
    Fifty years later she is Patrice Leigh, a nationally celebrated medium. But cracks are forming in the carefully constructed barriers that keep her real history at bay.Leo is the journalist hired to write Patrice's biography. Struggling to reconcile the demands of his family, his grief for his lost son, and his need to understand his own background, Leo becomes more and more frustrated at Patrice's refusal to open up.Because behind closed doors, Patrice is hiding more than one secret. And it seems that now, her past is finally catching up with her.May thrills in this English familial mystery, adding enticing plot layers as intricate and divisive as the themes she introduces.'Intriguing with a cast of complex characters that keep you fascinated, this is a page-turner and surprisingly tender' Katie FForde'A resonant, emotional story about grief, loss and love with a complex, tragic heroine--a fake psychic reaching the end of her career. Although it's about death, this story is never depressing, and ultimately it's about recovery and healing' Julie Cohen'A beautiful and compelling story that delves into what is real, what we are willing to believe and the power of grief' Liz Fenwick'"All That is Lost" is a bold, beautiful thought-provoking novel, that sensitively confronts difficult themes' Rowan Coleman'It is a triumph. What Alison May has produced is an intimate and affecting study of loss, grief and identity that is just wonderful.' Linda's Book Bag'What an interesting and unique book... a fascinating, at times heart-wrenching, look at secrets, the cost of keeping them hidden, and whether hiding them requires lies.' Fireflies and Free Kicks

The Cotswolds Cookery Club: A Taste of Italy


Alice Ross - 2017
    Enough of the city, enough of her job – and most importantly, enough of her cheating boyfriend! So, when her best friend jets off to sunny Australia for six months and calls on Connie to house and dog-sit, the timing couldn’t be more perfect.Finally free to chase her dreams, Connie sets up her very own Cotswolds Cookery Club – a place to share scrumptious recipes and, more importantly, a lot of wine! Cue Melody, Kate and Eleanor, three very different women who Connie realises are all in need of a recipe for happiness…But with two gorgeous men turning up the heat, Connie may have just ended up with a recipe for disaster!Fans of Milly Johnson, Caroline Roberts and Jill Mansell will love this heartwarming read!

Love and Longing in Bombay


Vikram Chandra - 1997
    Critics around the world have embraced the book as a major work by this exciting young writer.

Welcome to the Arrow-Catcher Fair


Lewis Nordan - 1983
    

A Twist in the Tale


Jeffrey Archer - 1988
    From Africa to the Middle East, and from London to Beijing, Archer takes us to places we've never seen and introduces us to people we'll never forget.Meet the philandering husband who thinks he's committed the perfect murder; the self-assured chess champion who plays a beautiful woman for stakes far higher than cash; and the finance minister who needs to crack the secrets of a Swiss bank. Jeffrey Archer's collection of twelve spellbinding stories will sweep you on a journey of thwarted ambition, undying passion, and unswerving honor that you'll never forget.