Book picks similar to
I Drive a Valence: The Collected Lyrics of Bill Callahan by Bill Callahan
music
poetry
gods
lit-english-usa-canada
My Wife's Baby: I Am Not A Murder
R.M. Johnson - 2014
They discussed this over bottles of red wine the night they met and promised, if ever they became a couple, they would remain childless and forever the other’s priority. One year after being married, Erica tells Stan she’s pregnant: news she’s very happy about. Stan considers talking Erica out of it, but that would mean aborting her child, something he knows Erica would never do. Two months into the pregnancy, Stan notices changes: times he and Erica enjoyed as a fun-loving childless couple are no longer; Erica’s attention is occupied with all things related to the forthcoming baby, and Stan has gone without sex for months. The child arrives and things get even worse; Stan feels like an outsider: a stranger living among his wife and her son. Erica gives all her time, attention and love to the infant, leaving none for her husband. Stan becomes envious; he looks at the newborn as a threat, tells himself something must be done—but what? He fights his jealous thoughts, knowing horrible things would happen if he were ever to act on them. But one night while drunk, Stan attempts to make love to his wife but is once again rejected. His pride hurt and feeling disowned, Stan stumbles into the baby’s room with intentions of eliminating his problem once and for all, knowing there can only be one man in Erica’s life. That is the promise his wife had made him on the night they met, and it is the promise he intends to make her keep.
Scandalabra
Derrick Brown - 2009
Magazine, which covered the Southern California, and national, poetry scene in the mid-90's. It covers the growth of slam, with interviews and profiles of many poets who are now important figures in American poetry.
One NRI Girl
Rupi Kaur - 2019
She is working as a software engineer in an investment bank in USA. She has money ($$$$), she can afford sex outside marriage. She also has opinion on everything. She is dating various marriage prospects, will she get her dream guy?
O
Steven Carroll - 2021
Something she always thought of as a fairy tale. A fairy tale with a dark side, like the best of fairy tales...Occupied France, 1943. France's most shameful hour. In these dark times, Dominique starts an illicit affair with a distinguished publisher, a married man. He introduces her to the Resistance, and she comes to have a taste for the clandestine life - she has never felt more alive. Shortly after the war, to prove something to her lover, she writes an erotic novel about surrender, submission and shame. Never meant to be published, Story of O becomes a national scandal and success, the world's most famous erotic novel. But what is the story really about - Dominique, her lover, or the country and the wartime past it would rather forget?
Poetry in (e) Motion: The Illustrated Words of Scroobius Pip
Scroobius Pip - 2010
One of the UK’s most exciting up-and-coming hip-hop artists, Scroobius Pip, is a master of the spoken word lyric.From his childhood musings in the school playground to his feelings on the rat race, Pip has selected from his online fan collective artistic collaborations that bring the power of his lyrics to the printed page, creating an innovative multimedia collection of modern poetry.
Happily
Lyn Hejinian - 2000
Hejinian's characteristic linguistic intensity and philosophical approach are present in this book- length poem. "Reading Lyn Hejinian's HAPPILY can make one imagine a second, somewhat happier Stein telling stories in single long or short lines that are aware of one another as they go about their own affairs."--Bob Perelman "HAPPILY"...is a series of aphoristic statements interrogating 'hap' or, more prosaically, one's lot in life, one's fortune. This notion of chance as it is expressed through its root form, as in to happen, happenstance, happenings, haphazard, happenchance, happily, and happy happiness, becomes the generator that enlivens this ontological exploration of language's relationship to experience."--Claudia Rankine
Beyond The Night Before The Dawn
Nilesh Joshi - 2019
he is later found in a vegetative state at a railway station, where an old rag-picker takes him to his home where Mumukshu gradually recovers.Eventually, the old man dies leaving Mumukshu alone once again. slowly Mumukshu realizes that the old man was much wiser than what he appeared to be. he soon starts teaching the slum children from where he is eventually invited to serve in well known NGO.With his focus and dedication, Mumukshu becomes a well - known personality, yet he still feels a void inside him. One day almost 25 years post fateful incident of his wife's demise, Mumukshu meets tara, a young reporter, who constantly reminds him of his late wife. As the bond between the two grows, Mumukshu must find out the truth behind the same and decode the mysteries of life as he stands at the crossroads once again.About the Author:Niles is a writer, a poet a philanthropist but most importantly a seeker. His first book " Ladakh: Chronicles from the land of lamas " which was published in 2009. "Beyond The Night. Before the Dawn" is an attempt from him to share his experiences and learnings through the aid of a comprehensible fictional narrative of love story stretching beyond life.
High Adventure in the Great Outdoors
Henry Rollins - 1990
Spirit of the Fallen
T.J. Green - 2020
He has a violent history that haunts him, and a father he wants answers from - if he ever finds him.When they set up in business together with the Orphic Guild, they’re expecting adventure, intrigue and money.But their first job is more complicated than they expected.When they break fey magic that seals an old tomb, they find it contains more than they bargained for. Now they’re hunting for a rogue spirit, but he always seems one step ahead.The fight leads them in a direction they never expected.Gabe could leave his past behind, or he could delve into the darkest secrets of mankind. Shadow has no intention of being left out.If you enjoy action, intrigue, humour, and dark secrets that won’t stay buried, you’ll love this first in series spin-off from the White Haven Witches.
Goose Girl
Joy Dettman - 2001
Sally De Rooze is almost thirty. She survived the accident that killed her father and brothers. Her mother never forgave her for that. But she survived her mother too. Surviving is what she does best. Farmer Ross Bertram, who offers her his acres and safety, is the answer for a while. Until he starts pushing for a wedding. Sally wants ... wants more. Wants to know great love. Wants to find herself. One year. That's what she wants. One year of freedom in the big, bad city. Her survival skills are tested in the urban sprawl and she discovers more about herself than she had ever dared to imagined.
Driving Stevie Fracasso
Barry Divola - 2021
What could possibly go wrong? For fans of Nick Hornby, David Nicholls and Jonathan Tropper.Jaded music journalist Rick McLennan knows his life is going south when he loses his job, his apartment and his long-term girlfriend all on the same day. But then he is thrown a lifeline - a commission to write the story of his ex-rock-star brother, Stevie, and drive him from Austin, Texas, to New York to play one final gig. One small problem: the brothers haven't spoken in thirty years.Rick knows it's a bad idea. But he's out of choices. So he gets behind the wheel of a beaten-up 1985 Nissan Stanza and drives towards his destiny. He's about to find everything he didn't know he was missing. It's September 2001.From award-winning journalist and author Barry Divola comes a glorious, music-infused, rollicking road-trip novel - think High Fidelity meets The Big Lebowski meets The Darjeeling Limited. A smart, funny and wholly endearing story about how, though we may at times lose ourselves along the way, the road always leads back to family and the things that bring us joy.'Of course this road trip comes with a top-quality mix-tape - it's by Barry Divola - but it's the layers to this story, and its humour and its heart, that make this journey irresistible.' - Nick Earls'This book is the super f∗∗∗ing gnarly lead break of rock-lit novels.' - John Birmingham'Driving Stevie Fracasso reads as great as the fifth Replacements album sounds. It's a New York-centric, music-obsessive tale of humour and poignancy, the literary equivalent of hanging with folks who think going to church is finding a record fair. A+' - Stuart CoupeAn interpreter of the listening experience forced to listen to experience? This novel will be read in between flippin' records. Go for the ride. You'll be spent, you'll be grateful.' - Tim Rogers'If I could go back in time and take a different fork in the road, I would have lived like Barry Divola. But poor choices can't be unmade, and if Driving Stevie Fracasso is the only ride available I'll take it. Damn you, Barry Divola, you've been having everyone else's fun.' - Malcolm Knox
Casanova in Bohemia
Andrei Codrescu - 2002
In his national bestseller "The Blood Countess," Andrei Codrescu brought to life the bloodthirsty royal Elizabeth Bathory, who embodied nearly all the contradictions of the seventeenth century. Now he depicts the astonishing life of the legendary Casanova, as the old adventurer relives his life while writing his memoirs in a provincial Bohemian castle at the end of the eighteenth century. Far from being defeated by age, Casanova delights in the maidservants, reacts with intellectual vigor to the unfolding of the French Revolution, and collaborates with Mozart on "Don Giovanni." Long considered the rhapsodist of an age of aristocratic mirth, scandal, and innumerable affairs, Casanova was also a first-rate intellect who corresponded and argued with Voltaire and Rousseau. His published work, besides the celebrated "History of My Life," includes a multivolume fantasy fiction novel that predates and anticipates Jules Verne; translations of Italian classics into French; and a number of plays that were produced on the great stages of Europe.Casanova's romantic legend overshadowed his literary work, which was, for the most part, not published until 1960. The fate of his writings was nearly as fabulous and intriguing as that of their author. Still, even in abridged, bowdlerized, and fragmentary form, Casanova's memoirs have inspired writers as diverse as Flaubert, Stendhal, Hermann Hesse, and now, Andrei Codrescu. Codrescu's vivid fictional account illuminates the interest we still havein this uncompromising and magical libertine, while it imagines how his life would have continued if Casanova's immortality had extended beyond the literary.In Codrescu's retelling of the Casanova legend, readers are introduced to an age far less inhibited than our own, and far more interesting in its vices. At once a libertine, a defender of women, a reactionary, a revolutionary, a brilliant observer, and a visionary, Casanova was a man ahead of his time both in thought and in action. Finally, in this inventive and absorbing work, Casanova is given due credit for his writings, his philosophies, and, of course, for the amorous magic that has been made known to so many.
The Last Bush Pilots
Eric Auxier - 2012
But Mother Nature--and a beautiful Native Alaskan--stand in their way. Southeast Alaska Seaplanes, Juneau. Retired airline captain, Chief Pilot Dusty Tucker pilots a renegade band of flying misfits. Meet legendary bush pilot Jake "Crash" Whitakker, equally adept at landing planes and ladies--and "crashin' 'em" as well; prankster pilot Ralph Olaphsen, who once set an extinct volcano ablaze on April Fool's Day; and no-nonsense Check Airman Holly Innes, trying to cut a respectable niche in the notoriously macho bush pilot world--while escaping a dangerous past.Amid Alaska's volatile skies, DC and Allen face escalating challenges in and out of the cockpit. As the two cheechackos, or greenhorns, learn the ropes, they are also roped into Crash and Ralph's hare-brained scheme, Operation Dirty Harry. Under the suspicious nose of Draconian FAA Inspector Frederick Bruner, the pilots hatch a plot to hijack and rescue a planeload of orphaned bear cubs. Moreover, mischievous Tlingit Indian Tonya Hunter, as wild and unpredictable as the land in which she lives, plays the two lovestruck cheechackos against each other.But the true villain of the story is Mother Nature herself. Alaska's notoriously fickle weather and rugged terrain take on a life of its own.Can the two cheechackos survive Her relentless onslaught and launch their fledgeling airline careers?"Airline Captain, popular blogger and author Eric Auxier brings his former Alaska bush flying experience to life in his second novel, "The Last Bush Pilots." The award-winning "Code Name: Dodger" is his first. "Eric Auxier is the next Tom Clancy of Aviation." --Tawni Waters, Author, "Beauty of the Broken;" "Siren Song;" Grand Prize Recipient, Top Travel Writers 2010 "I flew through The Last Bush Pilots in one sitting, keeping my seatbelt securely fastened. A fast-paced tale, thoroughly enjoyed."--John Wegg, Editor Airways Magazine"Eric paints pictures with words that are every bit as beautiful and moving as anything ever drawn or photographed. " --Aviationguy.com
The Owl and the Nightingale
Simon Armitage - 2021
. . in its own eccentric way, [The Owl and the Nightingale] is every bit as enticing as Gawain . . . it is arguably the greatest early Middle English poem we have. ProspectA graceful, elegant translation. GuardianFollowing his acclaimed translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl, Simon Armitage shines light on another jewel of Middle English verse. In his highly engaging version, Armitage communicates the energy and humour of the tale with all the cut and thrust of the original. An unnamed narrator overhears a fierce verbal contest between the two eponymous birds, which moves entertainingly from the eloquent and philosophical to the ribald and ridiculous. The disputed issues still resonate - concerning identity, cultural habits, class distinctions and the right to be heard. Excerpts were featured in the BBC Radio 4 podcast, The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed. Including the lively illustrations of Clive Hicks-Jenkins, this is a book for the whole household to read and enjoy.
Jersey Rain
Robert Pinsky - 2000
Gazingnowhere in particular, the slenderThunderer surrounded by thunder,Fire zigzag in his grasp, labeled "SpiritOf Communication"---unhistorical,Pure, the merciless messenger.--from "A Phonebook Cover Hermes of the Nineteen-forties"Innovative, engaging poems from a leading American poet.Stone wheel that sharpens the blade that mows the grain,Wheel of the sunflower turning, wheel that turnsThe spiral press that squeezes the oil expressedFrom shale or olives. Particles that turn mudOn the potter's wheel that spins to form the vesselThat holds the oil that drips to cool the blade.--from "Biography"Jersey Rain takes up a central American subject: the emotional power of inventions, devices, and homemade imaginings -- from the alphabet and the lyre through the steel drum and piano to the record player, digital computer, and television. Formally innovative and highly readable poems like "ABC," "Ode to Meaning," "To Television," and "The Green Piano" meditate a life guided by the quick, artful tinkerer-god Hermes: deity of music and deception, escort of the dead, inventor of instruments, brilliant messenger, and trickster of heaven.Tiptoe on the globe. Gazingnowhere in particular, the slenderThunderer surrounded by thunder,Fire zigzag in his grasp, labeled "SpiritOf Communication"---unhistorical,Pure, the merciless messenger.--from "A Phonebook Cover Hermes of the Nineteen-forties"Jersey Rain -- at once complex and aboveboard -- marks a new, strong, lyrical stage of Robert Pinsky's work. Assembled here are poems -- some of the finest of his career -- that together compose a sweeping and embattled meditation on the themes of a life guided by Hermes: deity of music and deception, escort of the dead, inventor of instruments, brilliant messenger and trickster of heaven.