The River


Helen Bryan - 2021
    From the ancestral blood and sweat of its settlers—the immigrants, the slaves, the Cherokee—a new generation strives for prosperity in the united township of Grafton.Across the unfolding decades, childhood friends, mothers and daughters, wives and lovers will have their bonds tested. New hopes and dreams lie beyond the river, and as allegiances are challenged, a harmonious community finds itself grappling with inevitable cultural change—change that creates a vast, opportune, and unpredictable new beginning for generations yet to come.

The Plummeting Old Women


Daniil Kharms - 1989
    These texts are characterized by a startling and macabre novelty, with elements of the grotesque, fantastic and child-like touching the imagination of the everyday. They express the cultural landscape of Stalinism -- years of show trials, mass atrocities and stifled political life. Their painful, unsettling eloquence testify to the humane and the comic in this absurdist writer's work. The translator Neil Cornwall gives a biographical introduction to his subject, enlarged upon by the poet Hugh Maxton in a contextual assessment of the writing of Flann O'Brien, Le Fanu and Doyle, and of their shared concerns with detective fiction, terror and death. Daniil Kharms 91905-42) died under Stalin. Along with fellow poets and prose-writers of the era -- Khlebnikov, Biely, Mandelstam, Zabolotsky and Pasternak -- he is one of the emerging experimentalists of Russian modernism.

Pandemonium


Armando Iannucci - 2021
    It tells the story of how Orbis Rex, Young Matt and his Circle of Friends, Queen Dido and the blind Dom'nic did battle with 'a wet and withered bat' from Wuhan.

The Scarlet Ibis: Poems


Susan Hahn - 2007
    The resonance of this image grows through each section of the book as Hahn skillfully employs theme and variation, counterpoint and mirroring techniques. The ibis first appears as part of an illusion, the disappearing object in a magician’s trick, which then evokes the greatest disappearing act of all—death—where there are no tricks to bring about a reappearance. The rich complexity multiplies as the second section focuses on a disappearing lady and a dramatic final section brings together the bird and the lady in their common plight—both caged by their mortality, their assigned time and role.  All of the illusions fall away during this brilliant denouement as the two voices share a dialogue on the power of metaphor as the very essence of poetry. bird trick iv It’s all about disappearance. About a bird in a cagewith a mirror, a simple twiston the handle at the sidethat makes it come and go at the magician’s insistence. It’s all about innocence.It’s all about acceptance.It’s all about compliance.It’s all about deference.It’s all about silence. It’s all about disappearance.

Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside


Quincy Carroll - 2015
    The first, Thomas, is an entitled deadbeat, content to pass the rest of his days in Asia skating by on the fact that he's white, while the second, a recent college graduate named Daniel, is an idealist at heart. Over the course of the novel, these two characters fight to establish primacy in Ningyuan, a remote town in the south of Hunan, with one of their more overzealous students, Bella, caught in between. Quincy Carroll's cleverly written debut novel examines what we bring from one country to another.

The Little Light (The Guardians of the Lore #1)


Dipa Sanatani - 2019
    But they’re going to have to put their differences aside to help the Little Light - a wise soul, imbued with insight and curiosity - prepare for its birth on Planet Earth, where it has a great and far-reaching destiny... “A part of the Sun will always shine inside the Little Light, come what may. Life can be full of pain, suffering and strife, but this spark will always remain untouched because it belongs to the source of all life on earth. Nothing and no one can take it away because it is a gift from the father to all his children. It can never be tarnished or spoilt. It exists and will continue to burn bright till the death of the physical body.” In her debut novel The Little Light, Dipa Sanatani takes the reader on a voyage of awakening and discovery, ideal for lovers of mythology, spirituality, folklore and fairy tales. On the eve of its birth, The Little Light finds itself in the topsy-turvy world of the Planet Party, hosted in the Cosmic Womb. Here, anything is possible, and anything could happen… and the Little Light must do all it can to listen, learn, and ready itself for the path which will lead it to its destiny on earth. Along the way the Little Light meets Mercury, who bristles at being constantly overshadowed (literally!) by his father, The Sun, a flamboyant figure who wears a gold ring on every finger and bright yellow loafers. As the rest of the Celestial Beings gather, they have to contend with Havah and Dag, the Guardians of the Lore, who know that the Little Light will soon be a tiny baby in a cold, hard world where it will have to struggle for its survival. Alongside the Little Light, we learn there is more to explore in the heavens and on this earth than anybody could ever imagine possible. Endless lives, perpetual cycles of death and rebirth, infinite possibilities for love, happiness, renewal, enlightenment and wisdom… it’s all out there, waiting to be discovered, and waiting to make a change deep within us all.

40


Travis Thrasher - 2011
    At first, he thinks it's just the stress of his job, but the hallucinations continue until they culminate at the three-day concert in Chicago, Lollapalloza, which he is covering for work. There he is approached by an older man who tells him that he's going to die on his fortieth birthday.The man claims to be an angel named Matthew, and even though he gives Tyler enough evidence to convince him he's telling the truth, he doesn't know what to do with the information.Tyler's underlying doubt and confusion about Matthew's prediction turn to anger, both at God and those around him. As he begins to exhibit destructive behavior, he befriends Ellis, an internationally known DJ. Tyler is scared that he really is about to die. He's scared for his sanity. He's scared that if he does die, he's not going to Heaven. He also soon becomes scared of Ellis, who is wild and opens up a door of temptation to Tyler.As Tyler begins falling in a downward spiral of fear and confusion, he reaches out to a pastor he met, Will, and tries to right his wrongs with some of the important people in his life in a desperate attempt to find peace before his 40th birthday.

The Stakes


Ben Sanders - 2018
    The latest from Ben Sanders, following his novels American Blood and Marshall’s Law.Rip-offs are a dangerous game, but heist man Miles Keller thinks he’s found a good strategy: rob rich New York criminals and then retire early, before word’s out about his true identity. New town, new name, no worries. Retirement can’t come soon enough, though. The NYPD is investigating him for the shooting of a hitman named Jack Deen, who was targeting Lucy Gates—a former police informant and Miles’s ex-lover. Miles thinks shooting hitmen counts as altruism, but in any case a murder charge would make life difficult. He’s ready to go to ground, but then Nina Stone reappears in his life. Nina is a fellow heist professional and the estranged wife of LA crime boss Charles Stone. Miles last saw her five years ago, and since then her life has grown more complicated: her husband wants her back, and he’s dispatched his go-to gun thug to play repo man. Complicating matters is the fact that the gun thug in question is Bobby Deen, cousin of the dead Jack Deen—and Bobby wants vengeance. The stakes couldn’t be higher, but Nina has an offer that could be lucrative. Maybe Miles can stick around a while longer…

Love Story


Megan Benjamin - 2017
    Some poems read as conversations, some as internal monologues, others as observations, but they all work together to tell one couple's love story.

(w)holehearted: a collection of poetry and prose


Sara Bawany - 2018
    it is the facade that many of us peruse our lives carrying, often neglecting our pain, our mental health, and most importantly, the way we are more prone to hurting others when we lack this self-awareness. (w)holehearted seeks to encompass as many stories as possible, touching on several topics, namely, spirituality, feminism, colorism, domestic violence, intersectionality, mental health and more. it aims to depict that anyone with the darkest past and pitfalls can still save themselves from drowning in the difficulties that not only plague our world, but also plague our hearts.

Discovery


Sherry A. Burton - 2018
    When Cindy enters the storage unit that holds her grandmother's belongings, she is merely looking for items she can sell to recoup some of the rental fees she's spent paying for the shed. Instead, what she finds are secrets her grandmother has taken to the grave with her. The more Cindy uncovers, the more she wants to know. Why was her grandmother abandoned by her own mother? Why hadn't she told Cindy she'd lived in an orphanage? And how come her grandmother never mentioned she'd made history as one of the children who rode the Orphan Trains? Join Cindy as she uncovers her grandmother's hidden past and discovers the life that stole her grandmother's love.

From This Moment On


Colette Caddle - 2013
    But, after standing up to him, she is delighted when she is vindicated.Lynn loved her job and she was good at it and now, with the support and love of her partner, parents and friends, she can put this terrible time behind her and find a job in another hotel.But the consequences of Vincent's actions are more far-reaching than Lynn knows and the after-effects are still being felt throughout the small town. The Boland family is powerful and influential and it's not long before Lynn realizes that this man still has the capacity to destroy her and all she holds dear.

Half Pleasure Half Pain


Mohamed Ghazi - 2016
    This book is about the girls whose lives were ruined by me. I want to write about my story, for it’s the only way to be immortal. I want you to feel the pleasure of falling in love. The lust, the passion, the desire, and the craving that turns into an unhealthy addiction. And I want you also to feel the pain of losing someone, the ache, the agony, the bitterness, and the grief that cripples your soul forever. This is for everyone. The forgotten souls buried under the melancholy of the past. Yes, I will show you how much you hurt me, I will write. This is what my heart holds for you; half pleasure, half pain.

Tomorrow's Promise & Above and Beyond


Sandra Brown - 1983
    Since then, she's found some peace as an advocate for POWs, but she knows she'll never love again.Until, on a crowded flight to Washington, DC, she meets Dax, and it happens the way attraction happens best: suddenly, passionately and uncontrollably. Can Keely allow herself a future while still honoring the man from her past?Above and Beyond (Pseudonym Erin St. Claire) When Trevor Rule's best friend Richard is killed in action, Trevor knows his first priority is to take care of Richard's grieving widow, Kyla. All he has to give her is a box filled with the love letters she'd written Richard, a box Trevor has protected with his life. But with each letter he reads, he falls more in love with his best friend's wife.With Richard's death haunting them both, how can Trevor tell Kyla how he feels, and convince her that they both have a right to be happy?"

The Metronome


D.R. Bell - 2014
    This was an unplanned book: The Great Game was supposed to be a stand-alone story. Then questions about a sequel started coming in. The last words in The Great Game are “This is not the end.” I meant it philosophically, meaning that the struggle between good and evil, quest for power vs. individual liberty will continue as they did through the centuries. But I was being too cute by half and the readers called me on it.And somewhere in the process of working on a sequel I have taken a turn into the past. Events in The Great Game are based on the financial crisis which in turn is rooted in a financial warfare between the US on one side and China and Russia on the other side. I wanted to go back in time and show the beginning of that warfare, show that the seeds have been planted and carefully cultivated prior to the events in the story. And something else started happening. Some of the events “predicted” in The Great Game began to materialize much sooner than I expected, particularly rising tensions between the U.S. and Russia and growing rapprochement of China and Russia. The characters of The Metronome are made up but the backdrop of the events is real and factual. The main protagonist Pavel Rostin is a regular, very flawed man who faces difficult circumstances. I know that the ending of The Metronome will upset some of the readers but I felt it was the only honest way to conclude the first part: the larger context was not Pavel's immediate fate or his flaws, but the moral choices he made at the end and their impact on others. Because “even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”Pavel Rostin has taken too many chances. Once a promising physicist, he abandoned science for finance and risked everything on a speculative venture. Careless and rogue, he gambled with his personal relationships. As Pavel tries to pick up the pieces of his life, a call from Russia informs him that his father is dead.When Pavel follows his father’s footsteps trying to solve the mystery of his death, he turns up some inexplicable clues. The investigation draws him deeper and deeper into his family’s past – and his country’s future. From starving 1941 Leningrad to free-wheeling Moscow of the mid-1990s to bubbly 2006 Wall Street, Pavel uncovers a web of money, murder, revenge and evidence of a plot involving the world’s superpowers. The choices of right and wrong don’t look as clear cut as in newspaper headlines. But is he just a pawn in someone else’s game?