Book picks similar to
The Bluest Eye by Lydia R. Diamond
plays
fiction
grad-school-reading
plays-that-sound-good
After Annie
Michael Tucker - 2012
Herbie Aaron is one half of a celebrity marriage. He and Annie have been famous, nobodies, and mingled with the rich and crazy. Through it all, they've been passionate lovers and fast friends. But when Annie dies of cancer, Herbie is lost.If you think this is going to be a tragic tale about grief, think again. Herbie is too cantankerous, sly, and charming to keel over. Enter Olive, a beautiful bartender who just might be a great actress; Candy, Herbie and Annie's neurotic daughter; and a woman named Billy, the tough-talking golf pro who teaches Herbie more about his psyche than about his lousy swing.After Annie is a hilarious and beautifully rendered novel about a man off the rails, battling through the middle-aged wilderness days he hoped never to face alone. It is a book that examines the inevitable passing of time with clarity and wry brilliance, and a story of surprising power.
Five Short Plays
Martyn Ford - 2007
Use these fully illustrated classic and contemporary plays for reading practice or performance.Each script offers performance notes, character lists, exercises, and glossaries.
Good Grief
Ngozi Anyanwu - 2020
GOOD GRIEF follows Nkechi, or N- a med-school dropout, a first generation Nigerian, a would-be goddess- as she navigates first loves and losses, and tries to find answers in her parents, the boy next door, and the stars.
Mud
María Irene Fornés - 1983
Lloyd, who lives with Mae, spends his time caring a little too much for the farm animals; he scorns to learn from a book, and treats Mae with angry disrespect. When Lloyd becomes ill, Mae goes searching for a diagnosis, and brings their simple, yet eloquent, neighbor Henry home with her, in order to help her read the difficult medical language. The ensuing love / hate triangle that brews between the three creates a toxic environment, and Mae, whose love and respect for Henry turn to impatience and resentment after an accident renders him helpless, determines that to escape the ill-luck of her life, she must escape the men who depend upon her.
Woman and Scarecrow
Marina Carr - 2006
What was life? What was love? What else could have been? Full of mordant, bitter humour, this is a passionate threnody from one of Ireland's leading playwrights.Woman and Scarecrow premieres at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in June 2006.
Hughie
Eugene O'Neill - 1958
Only two characters appear on stage; Hughie, the third and most important one, is dead. It is Hughie's innocence, gullibility, and need to believe in a far more exciting existence than he ever knew which gives some kind of purpose to the shabby lives of the two who remain. O'Neill here again writes of the defeated and the courage that comes by way of illusions reflecting still other illusions in a world that needs them all.Hughie, the only surviving manuscript from a series of eight one-act monologue plays that O'Neill planned in 1940, was completed in 1941.
The Producers
Mel Brooks - 2002
This songbook contains easy piano arrangements of a dozen songs from Mel Brooks' Broadway blockbuster, the winner of a record 12 Tony Awards! Includes: Along Came Bialy * Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop * Goodbye! * Haben Sie Gehort Das Deutsche Band? * I Wanna Be a Producer * In Old Bavaria * Keep It Gay * Prisoners of Love * Springtime for Hitler * That Face * 'Til Him * When You Got It, Flaunt It.
The Little Ice Cream Shop By The Sea
Lizzie Chantree - 2021
Their seafront business is failing with the loss of Genie’s grandmother and her legendary ice cream flavours. Genie is determined to be the one to save her family’s heritage, but suddenly her mother wants to sell to developers and leave their shared history behind.Buying the business and taking on a sixty-eight year old business partner, Ada, with a mysterious past and a gorgeous but distracting grandson, Genie sets out to prove her parents wrong.Ada’s grandson, Cal, wants to protect his gran from ‘pensioner persuader’, Genie, but soon realises that living in a little seaside town and away from the paparazzi in Hollywood can actually give him time to heal. Hiding in a seafront business with its fiery owner and working as kitchen staff, is the only way he can think of to keep his ex-Hollywood glamour-puss, gran from harm. But his meddling might also ruin Ada's second chance at love. Hiring a private detective and learning about Genie’s parent’s past makes Cal regret his own impulsiveness. The information he has unearthed could destroy their blossoming romance and turn Genie’s world upside down.Genie soon discovers that friends can become enemies and your closest family can have lied to you for your whole life.
The First Phone Call From Heaven: by Mitch Albom -- Review
Expert Book Reviews - 2013
The First Phone Call from Heaven is a compelling, emotional read with a mystery that will keep readers intrigued and eager to see the story to its finish. Albom wraps the story up in a surprising way, giving readers a satisfactory yet thought-provoking conclusion. The novel is more sentimental than it is intellectually stimulating, but it does lead readers to question what makes a miracle, and question the importance of faith. Although it deals primarily with Christianity, people of all faiths will find that the story resonates with them. The First Phone Call from Heaven features relatable characters, each coping with the loss of a loved one. As you will learn in this review, Albom's writing style is simple and to the point, making it an easy read that will appeal to anyone looking for an inspirational novel. This review also gives you commentary from literary experts to help you understand where this novel succeeds, as well as where it falls short.
A Matter of Conscience: the Aragon Years
Judith Arnopp - 2021
The intensive education that follows offers Henry a model for future excellence; a model that he is doomed to fail.On his accession, he chooses his brother’s widow, Caterina of Aragon, to be his queen. Together they plan to reinstate the glory of days of old and fill the royal nursery with boys.But when their first-born son dies at just a few months old, and subsequent babies are born dead or perish in the womb, the king’s golden dreams are tarnishedChristendom mocks the virile prince. Caterina’s fertile years are ending yet all he has is one useless living daughter, and a baseborn son.He needs a solution but stubborn to the end, Caterina refuses to step aside.As their relationship founders his eye is caught by a woman newly arrived from the French court. Her name is Anne Boleyn.
A Matter of Conscience: The Aragon Years
offers a unique first-person account of the ‘monster’ we love to hate and reveals a man on the edge; an amiable man made dangerous by his own impossible expectation.The story continues in
A Matter of Faith
: Book Two of The Henrician Chronicle.
The Air Raid Girls
Jenny Holmes - 2021
Meet the Air Raid Girls: three young women keen to do their bit during the Yorkshire blitz.Connie's life has taken an unexpected turn since her husband died - she's living at home and working in the family bakery - but night shifts as an ARP Warden give her a firm sense of purpose.Her younger sister Lizzie is eager to play her part too, perhaps as an ambulance driver. Her fiance refuses to support her decision... but does he really know what's best for her?Twenty-year-old Pamela has led a sheltered life, but when her family's home is destroyed in a raid she must learn to stand on her own two feet - helped by new friends.As bombs fall and fires rage, the young women face the destruction of everything they've ever known. Can their fighting spirit prevail? And what of their families and the men they love?A thrilling and heartwarming new story of friendship, love and duty in wartime by the author of The Spitfire Girls, for fans of Elaine Everest and Rosie Hendry.
Lockwood
Lauran Paine - 1996
He's worked a number of years in Montana as a rangeman and wants to live where there's no snow in the winter. So he sets out for New Mexico, a place where he's heard the weather is mild and the living is easy. But getting there may be tougher than he thinks.In the Wyoming town of Derby, Lockwood is wounded in a gunfight and has to stay long enough to recuperate...and meet the pretty widow, Lady Barlow, owner of the Barlow ranch. The ranch is in need of a ramrod, but Lockwood refuses the job. After all, Wyoming isn't much warmer than Montana. But it looks like Fate—or someone else—doesn't want Lockwood to leave town. When he tries, he's ambushed and forced to stay again. It seems to Lockwood like his journey's ending, but sometimes life leads you down trails you never expected. Some mighty dangerous trails.
The Haunting of Bloodlore House
Tabatha Cross - 2017
Forbidden love spans the ages to occupy Bloodlore House for ever after. The Barnes family move into an expansive old Tudor home, never imaging they could ever own such splendour. The family’s three children, Sam and Jane, and Bridget, the brooding, love-sick teenager have the uppermost third-floor room as their game room, and a local babysitter, Tess thrown in to the mix. This room comes with a sinister ambience, an irremovable wooden cross and a jammed window, but is there more lurking unseen in this otherwise empty old room? Nightmares, voices and inexplicable happenings change each family member in different ways, and the babysitter is not left unscathed. Who will win out, the ancient or the contemporary? This compelling debut from Tabatha Cross will have the hairs standing on the back of your neck.