Barbara Quick

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Maine

In this enthralling new novel, Barbara Quick re-creates eighteenth-century Venice at the height of its splendor and decadence. A story of longing and intrigue, half-told truths and toxic lies, Vivaldi's Virgins unfolds through the eyes of Anna Maria dal Violin, one of the elite musicians cloistered in the foundling home where Antonio Vivaldi--known as the Red Priest of Venice--is maestro and composer.

Fourteen-year-old Anna Maria, abandoned at the Ospedale della Piet#65533; as an infant, is determined to find out who she is and where she came from. Her quest takes her beyond the cloister walls into the complex tapestry of Venetian society; from the impoverished alleyways of the Jewish Ghetto to a masked ball in the company of a king; from the passionate communal life of adolescent girls competing for their maestro's favor to the larger-than-life world of music and spectacle that kept the citizens of a dying republic in thrall. In this world, where for fully half the year the entire city is masked and cloaked in the anonymity of Carnival, nothing is as it appears to be.

A virtuoso performance in the tradition of Girl with a Pearl Earring, Vivaldi's Virgins is a fascinating glimpse inside the source of Vivaldi's musical legacy, interwoven with the gripping story of a remarkable young woman's coming-of-age in a deliciously evocative time and place.

Vivaldi's Virgins

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Jen Chaney

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

The Oral History of Clueless As Told by Amy Heckerling and the Cast and Crew

Will we ever get tired of Clueless? Ugh, as if!

Acclaimed pop culture journalist Jen Chaney celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the classic film's release in the first book of its kind, weaving together original interviews with writer and director Amy Heckerling; key cast members, including Alicia Silverstone (Cher), Paul Rudd (Josh), Stacey Dash (Dionne), Donald Faison (Murray), Elisa Donovan (Amber), Wallace Shawn (Mr. Hall), Twink Caplan (Ms. Geist and associate producer); and other crucial Clueless players like costume designer Mona May, casting director Marcia Ross, director of photography Bill Pope, former Paramount chairwoman Sherry Lansing, and many more. Cast and crew also pay heartfelt tribute to the late Brittany Murphy, who lit up the screen as Cher's protégée, Tai.

Chaney explores the influence of Jane Austen's Emma as the unlikely framework for Heckerling's script, the rigorous casting process (including the future stars who didn't make the cut), the functional yet fashion-forward wardrobe, the unique slang that drew from the past and coined new phrases for the future, the sun-drenched soundtrack that set the tone, and--above all--the massive amount of work, creativity, and craft that went into making Clueless look so effortlessly bright and glossy.

As If! illuminates why plaid skirts and knee socks will never go out of style, and why Clueless remains one of the most beloved comedies of all time.

As If!

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Chris Brown

Anna Hille

An International Hit TV Series

Currently starring in CBS'S hit series DR CHRIS: PET VET in the US and delighting audiences in Australia as the host of I'M A CELEBRITY, GET ME OUT OF HERE!, Chris Brown is a man of many talents but one thing will always stay constant in his life; his love of animals. For this son of a country vet, animals have been a part of Dr Chris Brown's life for as long as he can remember - so it's not surprising that he has followed in his father's veterinary footsteps. But Chris's life has one twist his dad never had to deal with ... a TV camera crew following him around to capture the day-to-day life of an urban vet. TALES FROM A BONDI VET is based on the hit Australian television show BONDI VET, which has become enormously popular around the world and made Dr Chris Australia's best loved vet. It tells his story along with the funny, strange and sometimes heartbreaking tales of his patients and their owners. From the moment a trembling Rottweiler called Zenna is brought into his clinic we follow the progress of Chris's many patients as he treats anything from poisoning, snake bite, near-drowning and trauma to cosmetic surgery, and love gone wrong. On call twenty-four hours a day, anything can happen ... and often does

Tales from a Bondi Vet

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Alma Katsu

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

“A wicked sharp spy novel…Equal parts Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Killing Eve.” –S. A. Cosby, author of Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears An exhilarating spy thriller written by an intelligence veteran about two women CIA agents whose paths become intertwined around a threat to the Russia Division--one that's coming from inside the agency. Lyndsey Duncan worries her career with the CIA might be over. After lines are crossed with another intelligence agent during an assignment, she is sent home to Washington on administrative leave. So when a former colleague--now Chief of the Russia Division--recruits her for an internal investigation, she jumps at the chance to prove herself. Lyndsey was once a top handler in the Moscow Field Station, where she was known as the "human lie detector" and praised for recruiting some of the most senior Russian officials. But now, three Russian assets have been exposed--including one of her own--and the CIA is convinced there's a mole in the department. With years of work in question and lives on the line, Lyndsey is thrown back into life at the agency, this time tracing the steps of those closest to her. Meanwhile, fellow agent Theresa Warner can't avoid the spotlight. She is the infamous "Red Widow," the wife of a former director killed in the field under mysterious circumstances. With her husband's legacy shadowing her every move, Theresa is a fixture of the Russia Division, and as she and Lyndsey strike up an unusual friendship, her knowledge proves invaluable. But as Lyndsey uncovers a surprising connection to Theresa that could answer all of her questions, she unearths a terrifying web of secrets within the department, if only she is willing to unravel it....

Red Widow

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James Han Mattson

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

A Novel

"An eventual American classic that is unrelenting in its beauty and incisive cultural critique." - KIESE LAYMON A chilling and blisteringly relevant literary novel of social horror centered around a brutal killing that takes place in a full-contact haunted escape room--a provocative exploration of capitalism, hate politics, racial fetishism, and our obsession with fear as entertainment. On April 27, 1997, four contestants make it to the final cell of the Quigley House, a full-contact haunted escape room in Lincoln, Nebraska, made famous for its monstrosities, booby-traps, and ghoulishly costumed actors. If the group can endure these horrors without shouting the safe word, "reprieve," they'll win a substantial cash prize--a startling feat accomplished only by one other group in the house's long history. But before they can complete the challenge, a man breaks into the cell and kills one of the contestants. Those who were present on that fateful night lend their points of view: Kendra Brown, a teenager who's been uprooted from her childhood home after the sudden loss of her father; Leonard Grandton, a desperate and impressionable hotel manager caught in a series of toxic entanglements; and Jaidee Charoensuk, a gay international student who came to the Unites States in a besotted search for his former English teacher. As each character's journey unfurls and overlaps, deceits and misunderstandings fueled by obsession and prejudice are revealed--forcing all to reckon with the ways in which their beliefs and actions contributed to a horrifying catastrophe. A startlingly soulful exploration of complicity and masquerade, Reprieve combines the psychological tension of classic horror with searing social criticism, and seamlessly threads together trial transcripts, evidence descriptions, and deeply layered individual narratives to present a chilling portrait of this tangled American life.

Reprieve

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Kalynn Bayron

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

New York Times bestselling author Kalynn Bayron teases and torments in this high-concept YA horror, perfect for fans of White Smoke and The Honeys.

You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight

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Nicola Keegan

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Haunted by an agoraphobic mother, a lost father, and a drug-addled sister, Philomena, reluctantly known as Pip, transforms her suffering and rage into beauty, grace, and purity in the swimming lane as she rises to the Olympic level. A first novel.

Swimming

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G. Willow Wilson

A fantastical journey set at the height of the Spanish Inquisition from the award-winning author of Alif the Unseen and writer of the Ms. Marvel series, G. Willow Wilson's The Bird King is a jubilant story of love versus power, religion versus faith, and freedom versus safety. G. Willow Wilson's debut novel Alif the Unseen was an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and it established her as a vital American Muslim literary voice. Now she delivers The Bird King, a stunning new novel that tells the story of Fatima, a concubine in the royal court of Granada, the last emirate of Muslim Spain, and her dearest friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker. Hassan has a secret--he can draw maps of places he's never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan's surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan's gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls? As Fatima and Hassan traverse Spain with the help of a clever jinn to find safety, The Bird King asks us to consider what love is and the price of freedom at a time when the West and the Muslim world were not yet separate.

The Bird King

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Karen Russell

"From the Pulitzer finalist and universally beloved author of the New York Times best sellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove, a stunning new collection of short fiction that showcases her extraordinary gifts of language and imagination"--

Orange World and Other Stories

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John Banville

these unearthly beings start to stir up trouble, to sometimes wildly unintended effect." --Book Jacket.

The Infinities

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Allan G. Hunter

Writing Exercises for Self-Exploration

Every life passage we go through shapes us, each one differently, each one forever. Often we tend to think there are only a few of these -- childhood, adolescence, middle years, old age. In this book you'll find that there are many more, and it is only by understanding them that we can come to know fully who we are. Sometimes, though, it feels as if we're so busy living we just don't have the chance to put our lives in any sort of perspective. This book can give you that chance, and supply that perspective. In these pages you will find the tools you need to come to a deeper understanding of yourself, so you can claim your selfhood and live your life more fully. You'll learn that you can do much of this work yourself, and that you don't have to rely on the specialists for meaningful self-exploration to occur. In these pages you will find a series of writing exercises (and sometimes drawing exercises, too) all of which are designed to help you reflect on your life so that you can understand yourself better. The exercises will give you the tools of the trade, that can enable you to undertake the vital work of personal exploration yourself, rather than having to rely on the experts -- the psychiatrists, the analysts, the therapists -- in the way that many of us tend to do now.

Life Passages *SIGNED*

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This house eats and is eaten . . .

"A riveting debut from a remarkable new voice! Trang Thanh Tran weaves an impressive gothic mystery in which Jade's father is determined to restore a decrepit home to its former glory and Jade is the only person who feels the soul-crushing devastation of colonialism lingering within its walls." --Angeline Boulley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Firekeeper's Daughter

A House with a terrifying appetite haunts a broken family in this atmospheric horror, perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic.

When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She's always lied to fit in, so if she's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised.

But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don't belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can't ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves cryptic warnings: Don't eat.

Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house--the home they have always wanted--will not rest until it destroys them. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. As she roots out the house's rot, she must also face the truth of who she is and who she must become to save them all.

She Is a Haunting

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#paperback #writing #craft #selfhelp #psychology 

How Writers Transcend Fear

The Courage to Write is an invaluable book and essential reading for anyone who wishes to learn how to write well.

Katherine Anne Porter called courage "the first essential" for a writer. "I have to talk myself into bravery with every sentence," agreed Cynthia Ozick, "sometimes every syllable." E. B. White said he admired anyone who "has the guts to write anything at all."An author who has taught writing for more than thirty years,

InThe Courage to Write, Ralph Keyes, an author who has taught writing for more than thirty years, assures us that anxiety is felt by writers at every level, especially when they dare to do their best. He describes the sequence of "courage points" through which all writers must pass, from the challenge of identifying a worthwhile project to the mixture of pride and panic they feel when examining a newly published book or article.

Keyes also offers specifics on how to root out dread of public "performance" and of the judgment of family and friends, make the best use of writers' workshops and conferences, and handle criticism of works in progress. Throughout, he includes the comments of many accomplished writers -- Pat Conroy, Amy Tan, Rita Dove, Isabel Allende, and others -- on how they transcended their own fears to produce great works.

The Courage to Write

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#hardcover #language #etymology #sociology #nonfiction #socialscience #history #words


English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever

Profanity has always been a deliciously vibrant part of our lexicon, an integral part of being human. In fact, our ability to curse comes from a different part of the brain than other parts of speech - the urgency with which we say 'f..k!' is instead related to the instinct that tells us to flee from danger. Language evolves with time, and so does what we consider profane or unspeakable. Nine Nasty Words is a rollicking examination of profanity, explored from every angle: historical, sociological, political, linguistic. In a particularly coarse moment, when the public discourse is shaped in part by once-shocking words, nothing could be timelier.

Nine Nasty Words

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#paperback #biography #movie #memoir #india #bestseller


A Memoir

As a little boy in India, Saroo Brierley got lost on a train. Twenty-five years later, from Australia, he found his way back. This is what happened in between. Born in a poor village in India, Saroo lived hand-to-mouth in a one room hut with his mother and three siblings…until at age five, he mistakenly boarded a train by himself, and ended up in Calcutta, all the way across the country. Uneducated, illiterate, and unable to recall the name of his hometown, he managed to survive for weeks on that city’s rough streets. Soon after, he was adopted by a couple in Tasmania. But despite growing up in a loving upper-middle class Aussie family, Saroo still clung to the last memories of his hometown and family in India, and always wondered if he’d ever find them again. Amazingly, twenty-five years later, with some dogged determination and a heap of luck—and the advent of Google Earth—he did. A Long Way Home is a poignant and inspirational true story of survival and triumph against incredible odds, celebrating the importance of never letting go of what drives the human spirit: hope.

A Long Way Home

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#hardcover #fiction #historical #emmadonoghue #mystery #historicalfiction #ireland #bookofthemonth #botm


In Emma Donoghue's latest masterpiece, an English nurse brought to a small Irish village to observe what appears to be a miracle-a girl said to have survived without food for months-soon finds herself fighting to save the child's life. Tourists flock to the cabin of eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell, who believes herself to be living off manna from heaven, and a journalist is sent to cover the sensation. Lib Wright, a veteran of Florence Nightingale's Crimean campaign, is hired to keep watch over the girl. Written with all the propulsive tension that made Room a huge bestseller, THE WONDER works beautifully on many levels--a tale of two strangers who transform each other's lives, a powerful psychological thriller, and a story of love pitted against evil.

The Wonder

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Page Habit edition with annotations from the author #hardcover #dystopian #fiction #memory #scifi #speculativefiction #pagehabit 

A short novel grappling with memory, identity, and ownership in an alternate version of the 1920s where the elite's memories can be removed and exist as clones

Karla Fossett

@karla272603

Books Listed

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Barbara Quick

Vivaldi's Virgins

Jen Chaney

As If!

Chris Brown; Anna Hille

Tales from a Bondi Vet

Alma Katsu

Red Widow

James Han Mattson

Reprieve

Kalynn Bayron

You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight

Nicola Keegan

Swimming

G. Willow Wilson

The Bird King

Karen Russell

Orange World and Other Stories

John Banville

The Infinities

Allan G. Hunter

Life Passages SIGNED

Trang Thanh Tran

She Is a Haunting

Ralph Keyes

The Courage to Write

John McWhorter

Nine Nasty Words

Saroo Brierley

A Long Way Home

Emma Donoghue

The Wonder

Bethany C. Morrow

Mem

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Barbara Quick

Vivaldi's Virgins

Jen Chaney

As If!

Chris Brown; Anna Hille

Tales from a Bondi Vet

Alma Katsu

Red Widow

James Han Mattson

Reprieve

Kalynn Bayron

You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight

Nicola Keegan

Swimming

G. Willow Wilson

The Bird King

Karen Russell

Orange World and Other Stories

John Banville

The Infinities

Allan G. Hunter

Life Passages *SIGNED*

Trang Thanh Tran

She Is a Haunting

Ralph Keyes

The Courage to Write

John McWhorter

Nine Nasty Words

Saroo Brierley

A Long Way Home

Emma Donoghue

The Wonder

Bethany C. Morrow

Mem

Get The App

Life Passages SIGNED