Book picks similar to
The Fassbinder Diaries by James Pate
issue-17-fiction
awp
contemporary
dark
Seven American Deaths and Disasters
Kenneth Goldsmith - 2013
Taking its title from the series of Andy Warhol paintings by the same name, Goldsmith recasts the mundane as the iconic, creating a series of prose poems that encapsulate seven pivotal moments in recent American history: the John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and John Lennon assassinations, the space shuttle Challenger disaster, the Columbine shootings, 9/11, and the death of Michael Jackson. While we've become accustomed to watching endless reruns of these tragic spectacles—often to the point of cliché—once rendered in text, they become unfamiliar, and revealing new dimensions emerge. Impartial reportage is revealed to be laced with subjectivity, bias, mystery, second-guessing, and, in many cases, white-knuckled fear. Part nostalgia, part myth, these words render pivotal moments in American history through the communal lens of media.
OK
Victor "Kool AD" Vazquez - 2016
aka Victor Vazquez’s debut novel "O.K." Written in as many languages as drugs it lists consumed (we’re counting idiolects, and music as a drug), "O.K." is a book of changes, as in flow, the Way, a contemporary perennial philosophy, starring Sun Ra, Bill Burroughs, 2Pac, you name It (knowing literary spirits)
Next Life
Rae Armantrout - 2007
Attempting to imagine the unimaginable and see the unseen, Armantrout evokes a "next life" beyond the current, and too often degraded, one. From the new physics to mortality, Armantrout engages with the half-seen and the half-believed. These poems step into the dance of consciousness and its perennial ghost partner--"to make the world up/of provisional pairs." At a time when our world is being progressively despoiled, Armantrout has emerged as one of our most important and articulate authors. These poems push against the limit of knowledge, that event-horizon, and into the echoes and phantasms beyond, calling us to look toward the "next life" and find it where we can.
The Interrogative Mood
Padgett Powell - 2009
Did they?) it might look something like this remarkable little book of Padgett Powell’s.”—Richard FordThe Interrogative Mood is a wildly inventive, jazzy meditation on life and language by the novelist that Ian Frazier hails as “one of the best writers in America, and one of the funniest, too.” A novel composed entirely of questions, it is perhaps the most audacious literary high-wire act since Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine or David Foster Wallace’s stories; a playful and profound book that, as Jonathan Safran Foer says, “will sear the unlucky volumes shelved on either side of it. How it doesn’t, itself, combust in flames is a mystery to me.”
Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane - For Fans (Trivia-On-Books)
Trivion Books - 2015
You may have liked the book, but not be a fan. You may call yourself a fan, but few truly are. Are you? Trivia-on-Books is an independent quiz-formatted trivia on the book for readers, students, and fans alike. Whether you're looking for new materials to the book or would like to take the challenge yourself and share it with your friends and family for a time of fun, Trivia-on-Books provides a unique approach that is both insightful and educational! Features You'll Find Inside: • 30 Multiple choice questions on the book, plots, characters and author • Insightful commentary to answer every question • Complementary quiz material for yourself or your reading group • Results provided with scores to determine "status" Promising quality and value, grab your copy of Trivia-on-Books!
I Did
Mardria Portuondo - 2021
Kay is one of those people, but I fall deeply in love with her. After a long fight, I accept that I will not get all that I want in this life, and I am lucky to have gotten the gift of love. Ready to walk down the aisle with Kay, we go to get a marriage license. I’m shocked when I’m denied because I did not get a divorce! Divorce? When did I get married? What the hell happened on that trip to Las Vegas? I go in search of the woman I have no memory of marrying because I need to get that divorce to move on with my life with Kay. I find her, and she possesses all that I imagined and everything I hoped for. Suddenly, I’m faced with an unbearable choice between the woman I love and the woman who holds the power to make all my dreams come true.
Avenging Amy
Annabelle Winters - 2021
. . ANNABELLE WINTERS STYLE!When a brash Saudi prince takes liberties with State Department translator Amy Hadad, she’s told to forget it and move on, to be a patriot and swallow her personal pride for the sake of the bigger picture.Saudi Prince Rafiq is helping the US in a delicate hostage situation with the rogue extremist nation of Jawal, and so Amy is stuck with an impossible choice: If she accuses Prince Rafiq, he might not help the US, and hostages might die.It’s not just an impossible choice, it’s no choice at all.She has to stand down, keep her mouth shut, smile for the camera, and let the show go on.Navy SEAL Jake Axelrod, busted down to security detail for a loudmouthed Senator after running his own mouth off in public, is used to choosing his country over himself.It’s what he was born to do, trained to do, loves to do.But when he senses how Amy reacts to Prince Rafiq at a State Department Gala in Dubai, something awakens in him, something comes alive, a different sense of moral duty that burns strong in his heart, like it comes from someplace deep and ancient, from a time when a man's highest duty was to protect his woman.Soon Axe faces his own impossible choice, and he makes it with his heart instead of his head.An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind, they say.Well, even a blind man knows when the sun is shining, and that’s what it feels like around Amy.So what the hell.Who needs eyes when your future's so clear.Hooyah.Toe-curling suspense, button-popping steam, mind-breaking action. And of course over-the-top drama and madness, Annabelle Winters style. This is a full length standalone.
A Princess and Her Billionaire Scoundrel at Sea
Stephanie Fowers - 2019
Dubbed Billionaire Bachelor Cove because of the resident's single status and income portfolios, The Cove is the perfect place to hide away from the world. But, as the residents soon find out, they can't hide from love. A Princess and Her Billionaire Scoundrel at Sea Paris James is a high-seas playboy. He throws lavish parties on his yacht to entertain clients for a multi-billion-dollar business that specializes in luxury water toys. He’s as free as a pirate … until he wins the royal Tyndarian bracelet in a game of chance—with that bracelet, comes a very special girl. Laney Moon is a first grade teacher who lives a fairly normal life--that is, until her cousin loses her heirloom bracelet in a rigged poker game. The grandmother who raised her will lose her house if Laney can't cash in on the bracelet. Desperate, Laney stows aboard Paris’s yacht, determined to take what’s hers from the scoundrel, and she is shocked to find a gentleman with stormy blue eyes and a mischievous grin. In one last outrageous wager, Paris agrees to return the bracelet if Laney can convince the other yacht guests that she is the princess who once owned it. Paris is in way over his head–he’d gladly return the bracelet if black market assassins weren’t after it, but now he must act like the uncaring pirate to keep her safe. As his feelings for Laney build, so do the threats against her. Paris must decide between rescuing Laney from her past or making her a part of his future. Because, princess or not, Laney Moon has already sailed away with his heart.
Mazie
Regina Felty - 2021
Her overwhelming grief often leaves her aching to escape her lonely existence and join her husband and son in the grave. When Brian, a reserved bachelor in his early thirties, moves next door, Mazie takes a special interest in him--even attempting to set him up with her young friend, Claire. Then, there’s the odd little girl across the street who is determined to be his friend. Brian doesn’t know what to make of the spunky old woman or the persistent young girl who both nudge their way into his life when he just wants to be left alone.When a sudden tragedy leaves Mazie battling for her life, Brian steps in to help the old widow, and both discover that life’s purpose is often revealed in the unexpected.
The Boy Detective Fails
Joe Meno - 2006
Ten years later, Billy, age thirty, returns from an extended stay at St Vitus' Hospital for the Mentally Ill to discover a world full of unimaginable strangeness: office buildings vanish without reason, small animals turn up without their heads, and cruel villains ride city buses to complete their evil schemes." Lost within this unwelcoming place, Billy finds the companionship of two lonely children, Effie and Gus Mumford - one a science fair genius, the other a charming, silent bully. With a nearly forgotten bravery, Billy confronts the monotony of his job in telephone sales, the awkward beauty of a desperate pickpocket named Penny Maple, and the seemingly impossible solution to the mystery of his sister's death. Along the path laden with hidden clues and codes that dare to be deciphered, the boy detective may learn the greatest secret of all: the necessity of the unknown.
How the Water Feels to the Fishes
Dave Eggers - 2007
A small collection of short stories, sold as part of the boxed set "One Hundred and Forty Five Stories in a Small Box: Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape, How the Water Feels to the Fishes, and Minor Robberies"
The Wedding in the Grove
Kay Correll - 2016
Or do they? Here's to finding love at any age... A crossover story between the Comfort Crossing series and the Lighthouse Point series.
True North
Kimberly Kafka - 2000
She is the only white woman in a land owned by the local Ingalik tribe; her closest neighbor is a fellow bush pilot and activist named Kash. Bailey and Kash are drawn to each other, but their fiercely independent natures keep them apart. When two Easterners hire Bailey to pilot them into the bush, a series of events is set in motion that will upset the delicate racial balance of the land and lead to violence. As the truth behind the couple's arrival becomes apparent, the refuge Bailey has created for herself shatters. Forced to face the demons of her unresolved past, she is given a chance to free herself at last from the secret that haunts her. Marked by spare, resonant prose and imbued with an indelible sense of place, True North tells a powerful story of adventure and survival. It is a welcome debut by a gifted new voice in literary fiction.
Point and Line
Thalia Field - 2000
The wonderful writings in Thalia Field's long-awaited new book Point and Line deny categorization, they are "nicheless." Perhaps describable as "epic poetries," these riveting pieces represent a confluence of genres in which Thalia Field has been involved over the course of her career: fiction, theater, and poetry. Written from a constructivist, post-genre sensibility, they elude classification, and present the author's concern with clarity in a world that resists it. For instance, in "Hours" and "Setting, the Table," Field uses indeterminate performance techniques to emphasize the categorical/conceptual nature of thought. Other pieces use generative schemes, portraits of mental shapes, which create meaning out of noise. Visually, each chapter is captivating, showing the author's need for shapes and colors in her work, her fascination with the contours of speech.
Be(loved): Poetry and Prose for the Journey Home
Dakota Adan - 2020
Hailed as “an essential book for those seeking self-love,” this heartfelt anthology lends voice to the heartbreak and healing of our soul’s quest to reunite with whom we always hoped we could be—ourselves.