Book picks similar to
We Begin at the End: Chapter Sampler by Chris Whitaker
adult
age-when-read-30s
casual-reading
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When We Were Animals
Joshua Gaylord - 2015
In fact, she never thought she would escape her small and peculiar hometown. When We Were Animals is Lumen's confessional: as a well-behaved and over-achieving teenager, she fell beneath the sway of her community's darkest, strangest secret. For one year, beginning at puberty, every resident "breaches" during the full moon. On these nights, adolescents run wild, destroying everything in their path.Lumen resists. Promising her father she will never breach, she investigates the mystery of her community's traditions and the stories erased from the town record. But the more we learn about the town's past, the more we realize that Lumen's memories are harboring secrets of their own.A gothic coming-of-age tale for modern times, When We Were Animals is a dark, provocative journey into the American heartland.
Jonathan Unleashed
Meg Rosoff - 2016
His girlfriend wants to marry someone just like him—only richer and with a different sense of humor. He doesn’t remember life being this confusing, back before everyone expected him to act like a grown-up. When his brother asks him to look after his dogs, Jonathan's world view begins to shift. Could a border collie and a cocker spaniel hold the key to life, the universe, and everything? Their sly maneuvering on daily walks and visits to the alluring vet suggest that human emotional intelligence may not be top dog after all. A funny, wise romantic comedy set in Manhattan, Jonathan Unleashed is a story of tangled relationships, friendships, and dogs. Rosoff’s novel is for anyone wondering what to be when they grow up, and how on earth to get there.
Me vs. Me
Sarah Mlynowski - 2006
Then Cam swoops in and gives her a sparkling engagement ring, making her decision even more impossible. Husband vs. career. Vera Wang wedding dress vs. sexy first-date outfits. Planting roots in Phoenix vs. playing the field in Manhattan… She wishes she didn't have to decide, that she could have it all. She never expects her wish to come true. Suddenly Gabby's living two lives. Whenever she falls asleep in one, she wakes up in the other. She's got the best of both worlds and what more could a girl ask for? Right?
The Yard Rose
Carolyn Brown - 2000
A part of her heart went to Galveston with him just after the second grade when he left southern Oklahoma.Twenty years later he returns home for his grandmother’s funeral. He decides to stay in Terral, a little southern Oklahoma town right on the Red River and the Chisholm Trail, to research a new line of restaurants to be located as close to the Trail as possible.During his stay he moves the WM Corporation travel trailer right on the property next to Glory’s land - and the struggle begins. She wants his land to enlarge her property. He wants her land to make a parking lot for his new restaurant. When he tries to cut down the beautiful row of rose bushes separating their property, the battle begins.They both realize they’ve fallen desperately in love yet they’re not sure if they can trust each other. It takes a lot of courage, some reassurance and many roses to confirm their love.
Live a Little!: Breaking the Rules Won't Break Your Health
Susan M. Love - 2009
. . .Yes, it’s true—more or less. Why? Women do need to eat healthier, exercise, get adequate sleep, and take preventive health care seriously, yet it’s equally important for them to relax. Relax, take a breather, and give up trying to follow the narrowly prescribed health “rules” that are constant sources of unhealthy stress and guilt. In Live a Little!, women finally get a long-overdue dose of realism about what’s truly healthy and what’s mostly hype. Susan Love and Alice Domar take on the health police, whose edicts make us feel terrible when we don’t get eight hours of sleep or eat the maximum daily serving of veggies. Most important, they remind us of a forgotten truth: Perfect health is not achievable.Breaking down the prevailing health “musts” in six areas—sleep, stress, preventive care, exercise, nutrition, and personal relationships—these doctors, with a little help from the other experts of BeWell, cut to the heart of these topics and give us realistic guidelines for living a healthy enough life, one that also includes laughter, relaxation, and a commonsense attitude about being pretty healthy.To learn more health truths and whittle down your overblown expectations of yourself, open this book. Using science combined with these experts’ surprisingly refreshing opinions, Live a Little! shows you how to be healthy without driving yourself crazy!
Vengeance: The Program Book 4
N.M. Catalano - 2018
Some mark their destruction; others their moments of glory. Every single moment in our lives has led us to right now. A war has begun. We lost one battle. That’s not going to happen again. We’ve waited, we’ve investigated, we’ve planned, and now we’re going to get our revenge. War is not always loud and explosive. Sometimes it’s silent and deadly. It’s patient and dangerous and mad as hell. She’s the only thing that matters, and they’ve threatened her. She can’t be mine, but that doesn’t mean I won’t destroy them. For her. Vengeance is coming. His name is Bull. GWENDOLYN He’s mean and rude and the biggest man I’ve ever seen. He is my protector. He comes every night, I don’t know why, but to me, it doesn’t matter. He sits out in the dark like some fallen angel. Four of them showed up out of nowhere, but he’s mine. I like to think so anyway, but he doesn’t even see me. Something is happening, they won’t tell me what it is, but I’m sure it’s bad. They have secrets, but so do I. Get ready, Bull, I’m coming for you. You want a war? You’ve got one, and I don’t fight fair. **Due to adult situations and strong language, not suitable for individuals under 18. Horror, menage, MFM**
My Side of the Matter
Truman Capote - 1945
Penguin Modern Classics publish the full range of Capote's novels and short stories, and the four tales in this collection show to the full the blend of cynicism, humour and love that characterized his finest work.
Flat Water Tuesday
Ron Irwin - 2013
Despite having long ago buried the memories of the brutal year he spent at the elite Fenton School in Connecticut as a postgraduate rower, Carrey finds that those days now return to haunt him.The Fenton School Boat Club’s top rowing team, called the God Four, is legendary. But the price that they pay for a shot at glory will scar each member of Carrey’s team far into adulthood.Colin Payne, the Massachusetts blue-blood; Jumbo, the good natured giant; John Wadsworth the preppy lawyer-to-be; Ruth Anderson, the Yale-bound coxswain; and Rob Carrey, the scholarship athlete from Niccalsetti, New York — all of them are forever bound to one another by the terrible cost of victory. Over one tumultuous week, Rob Carrey will learn that he cannot leave the past in his wake.
All the Water in the World
Karen Raney - 2019
Smart, funny, and profound, she has loyal friends, a mother with whom she’s unusually close, a father she’s never met, devoted grandparents, and a crush on a boy named Jack. Maddy also has cancer. Living in the shadow of uncertainty, she is forced to grow up fast. All the Water in the World is the story of a family doing its best when faced with the worst. Told in the alternating voices of Maddy and her mother, Eve, the narrative moves between the family’s lake house in Pennsylvania; their home in Washington, DC; and London, where Maddy’s father, Antonio, lives. Hungry for experience, Maddy seeks out her first romantic relationship, finds solace in music and art, and tracks down Antonio. She continually tests the depths and limits of her closeness with her mother, while Eve has to come to terms with the daughter she only partly knows, in a world she can’t control. With unforgettable voices that range from tender to funny, despairing to defiant, this novel illuminates the transformative power of love, humor, and hope.
The Other Mrs. Samson
Ralph Webster - 2021
Their lives are forever entwined by their love of the same man, the brilliant and compassionate Dr. Josef Samson.From the earliest, rough-and-tumble days of San Francisco, through the devastation of the Great War in Berlin and the terrors of Vichy France, and then to a new yet uncertain life in New York City, their stories span the most tumultuous events of the twentieth century. In the end, one of these women will complete the life of the other and make a startling discovery about the husband they share.
The Sweetest Days
John Hough Jr. - 2021
Pete and Jackie were high school sweethearts. Everyone expected them to marry immediately but an explosive incident tore them apart before graduation. It took years for the two to heal and finally come back together. Now, decades later, they face an uncertain future with their only child out on her own and alarming news about Jackie’s health. Determined to stay positive, the two travel to their Cape hometown for a book signing of Pete’s debut novel. But when a disastrous encounter in the bookstore with an old classmate brings their long relationship to the breaking point, they are forced to examine their marriage and explore their deepest feelings.
20 Under 40: Stories from The New Yorker
Deborah Treisman - 2010
The magazine published twenty stories by this stellar group of writers over the course of the summer. They are now collected for the first time in one volume.The range of voices is extraordinary. There is the lyrical realism of Nell Freudenberger, Philipp Meyer, C. E. Morgan, and Salvatore Scibona; the satirical comedy of Joshua Ferris and Gary Shteyngart; and the genre-bending tales of Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, and Téa Obreht. David Bezmozgis and Dinaw Mengestu offer clear eyed portraits of immigration and identity; Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, ZZ Packer, and Wells Tower offer voice-driven, idiosyncratic narratives. Then there are the haunting sociopolitical stories of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Daniel Alarcón, and Yiyun Li, and the metaphysical fantasies of Chris Adrian, Rivka Galchen, and Karen Russell.Each of these writers reminds us why we read. And each is aiming for greatness: fighting to get and to hold our attention in a culture that is flooded with words, sounds, and pictures; fighting to surprise, to entertain, to teach, and to move not only us but generations of readers to come. A landmark collection, 20 Under 40 stands as a testament to the vitality of fiction today.Birdsong / Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie --The warm fuzzies / Chris Adrian --Second Lives / Daniel Alarcón --The train of their departure / David Bezmozgis --The Erlking / Sarah Shun-lien Bynum --The pilot / Joshua Ferris --Here we aren't, so quickly / Jonathan Safran Foer --An arranged marriage / Nell Freudenberger --The entire northern side was covered with fire / Rivka Galchen --The young painters / Nicole Krauss --The science of flight / Yiyun Li --An honest exit / Dinaw Mengestu --What you do out here, when you're alone / Philipp Meyer --Twins / C.E. Morgan --Blue water djinn / Téa Obreht --Dayward / ZZ Packer --The dredgeman's revelation / Karen Russell --The kid / Salvatore Scibona --Lenny hearts Eunice / Gary Shteyngart --The landlord / Wells Tower
Sea of Memories
Fiona Valpy - 2018
They spend the summer together, exploring the island’s sandy beaches and crystal-clear waters, and, for the first time in her life, Ella feels truly free.But the outbreak of war casts everything in a new light. Ella is forced to return to Scotland, where she volunteers for the war effort alongside the dashing Angus. In this new world, Ella feels herself drifting further and further from who she was on the Île de Ré. Can she ever find her way back? And does she want to?From the windswept Île de Ré to the rugged hills of Scotland, Sea of Memories is a spellbinding journey about the power of memory, love and second chances.
Notwithstanding
Louis de Bernières - 2009
Welcome to the village of Notwithstanding where a lady dresses in plus fours and shoots squirrels, a retired general gives up wearing clothes altogether, a spiritualist lives in a cottage with the ghost of her husband, and people think it quite natural to confide in a spider that lives in a potting shed. Based on de Bernières' recollections of the village he grew up in, Notwithstanding is a funny and moving depiction of a charming vanished England.
Protecting Honor
Jesse Jacobson - 2017
Matthew “Wolf” Steele and his wife Caroline are with Trevor on a road trip to central Washington to assess the lodge for renovation. Honor Carpenter is a beautiful, intelligent, shy woman, emotionally scarred and still recovering from a horrifying experience from her past. She is alone, returning to Seattle from her first solo vacation. She has a flat tire while getting gas at a truck stop and learns of a major snowstorm looming ahead of her. Fortunately, she runs into Trevor, Wolf and Caroline, who offer to help her. A strong physical attraction develops between Honor and Trevor almost immediately. During dinner Wolf notices five dangerous looking men have taken a strong interest in them, but neither Wolf or Trevor recognize them. When the men leave, Trevor and Wolf dismiss their presence as chance. The snowstorm causes the roads to close and Trevor invites Honor to stay with them and the four of them use the lobby in the lodge as shelter. Honor grows closer to Trevor and sparks fly, but the romance must be put on hold. They soon discover the men from the diner have followed them and brought backup, surrounding the lodge and disabling Trevor’s truck. In the middle of central Washington, with no communication and few resources, Wolf and Trevor must unravel the mystery as to why they are being followed. Facing overwhelming odds Trevor and Wolf vow to protect protect Honor and Caroline at at any cost. WARNING: This book contains an explicit sex scene. Protecting Honor is action packed from start to finish. The romance sizzles.