Ntozake Shange

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

A Novel

Liliane

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Nanci Kincaid

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Stories

Stories on relations between men and women. In Why Richard Can't, a married man having an affair finds too many reasons not to leave his wife, Snakes is on coping with snakes in Florida, while in the title story a woman with cancer decides to experience adultery before she dies.

Pretending the Bed Is a Raft

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Stephen Jay Gould

A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown

In the bestselling short-history format of Longitude and How the Irish Saved Civilization, this elegant volume by the author of such well-known works as The Panda's Thumb and The Flamingo's Smile explores the rational and religious roots of human fascination with the millennium. 16 illustrations.

Questioning the Millennium

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Laura Zigman

When her boyfriend leaves her for no apparent reason and refuses to return her calls, Jane investigates the theories of Freud, Darwin, and her friends as she embarks on a journey to understand the male mind and uncover the secrets of the heart. Tour.

Animal Husbandry

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Michael Connelly

Chasing the Dime

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Martha W. McCartney

Oversized Hardcover (4 to 6 lbs)

Keystone of the Commonwealth

James City County

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Betty Friedan

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

The author explores the meaning of age and aging in contemporary society, for both men and women

The Fountain of Age

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Trevanian

Action, romance, laughter, love, wit, and compassion seasoned by a wryly oblique view of the human condition.

Hot Night in the City

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Jim Harrison

A trio of novellas--"Julip," "The Seven-Ounce Man," and "The Beige Dolorosa"--explores such topics as the recovery of innocence by an elderly couple and the regeneration of a man destroyed by political correctness

Julip

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Wally Lamb

With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.

I Know This Much Is True

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Alice Walker

A combination of black history and contemporary social conditions is the mix in this novel for mature readers that contains scenes of sexual abuse.

The Temple of My Familiar

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George Stephanopoulos

A Political Education

All Too Human is a new-generation political memoir, written from the refreshing perspective of one who got his hands on the levers of awesome power at an early age. At thirty, the author was at Bill Clinton's side during the presidential campaign of 1992, & for the next five years he was rarely more than a step away from the president & his other advisers at every important moment of the first term. What Liar's Poker did to Wall Street, this book will do to politics. It is an irreverent & intimate portrait of how the nation's weighty business is conducted by people whose egos & idiosyncrasies are no sturdier than anyone else's. Including sharp portraits of the Clintons, Al Gore, Dick Morris, Colin Powell, & scores of others, as well as candid & revelatory accounts of the famous debacles & triumphs of an administration that constantly went over the top, All Too Human is, like its author, a brilliant combination of pragmatic insight & idealism. It is destined to be the most important & enduring book to come out of the Clinton administration.

All Too Human

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Patrick McGrath

Patrick McGrath has created his most psychologically penetrating vision to date: a nightmare world rocked to its foundations by a passion of such force and intensity that it shatters the lives--and minds--of all who are touched by it. Stella Raphael, a woman of great beauty and formidable intelligence, is married to Max, a staid and unimaginative forensic psychiatrist. Max has taken a job in a huge top-security mental hospital in rural England, and Stella, far from London society, finds herself restless and bored. Into her lonely existence comes Edgar Stark, a brilliant sculptor confined to the hospital after killing his wife in a psychotic rage. He comes to Stella's garden to rebuild an old Victorian conservatory there, and Stella cannot ignore her overwhelming physical attraction to this desperate man. Their explosive affair pits them against Stella's husband, her child, and the entire institution. When the crisis comes to a head, Stella makes a decision--one that will destroy several lives and precipitate an appalling tragedy that could only be fueled by illicit sexual love. Asylum is a terrifying exploration of the extremes to which erotic obsession can drive us. Patrick McGrath brings his own dazzling blend of cool artistry and visceral engagement to this mesmerizing story of a fatal love and its unspeakably tragic aftermath. And in Stella Raphael, a woman who tears down the walls of her constricted existence to pursue a dangerous passion, he has created a character who will long be remembered for her willingness to take the ultimate risk, even if she must pay the ultimate price.

Asylum

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Michelle Slung

Women Writing Erotica

An anthology of twenty-one new erotic stories by women explores the unspoken fantasies of a broad range of lesbians and straight women whose real jobs range from bureaucrat to performance artist. 25,000 first printing. National ad/promo.

Slow Hand

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Maggie Estep

A slyly constructed semi-autobiographical story about a young woman skirting the edge of the '90s, dealing with relationships, her less-than-perfect past, and artistic angst, Diary of an Emotional Idiot is edgy and entertaining--a mesmerizing story of the more surreal aspects of day-to-day living on country back roads and Manhattan's East Village. 192 pp. Author tour. National media & online publicity. 30,000 print.

Diary of an Emotional Idiot

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Anna Quindlen

After her passionate marriage deteriorates into a violent nightmare, Fran Benedetto is forced to start a new life, complete with a new identity

Black and Blue

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Josephine Hart

Ruth smiles, but beneath the surface nurses a hatred as powerful as the sea, and as sharp as the coldest of blades. The object of Ruth's malevolence is her cousin, Elizabeth -- orphaned at nine months and raised by Ruth's parents as their own -- whose very presence stole Ruth's birthright as only child. From this twisted sense of betrayal grows an envy, dark as night, from which there can be but one refuge: Elizabeth's destruction. "From the Paperback edition.

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Sapphire

An electrifying first novel that shocks by its language, its circumstances, and its brutal honesty, Push recounts a young black street-girl's horrendous and redemptive journey through a Harlem inferno. For Precious Jones, 16 and pregnant with her father's child, miraculous hope appears and the world begins to open up for her when a courageous, determined teacher bullies, cajoles, and inspires her to learn to read, to define her own feelings and set them down in a diary.

Push

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Abigail Thomas

Collection of 12 stories told from the view of big-hearted, long-suffering women of all ages. Set in the time period mid-1950s to the present.

Getting over Tom

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Whitney Otto

The various passages in a woman's life are revealed through the emotions, personalities, attitudes, struggles, tragedies and triumphs, and life stories of a group of women who are members of a quilting circle in a small California town

How to Make an American Quilt

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Ruth Reichl

More Adventures at the Table

In Ruth Reichl’s latest book — one that will delight her fans and convert those as yet uninitiated to her charming tales — the author brings to life her adventures in pursuit of good meals and good company. Picking up whereTender at the Boneleaves off,Comfort Me with Applesrecounts Reichl’s transformation from chef to food writer, a process that led her through restaurants from Bangkok to Paris to Los Angeles and brought lessons in life, love, and food. It is an apprenticeship by turns delightful and daunting, one told in the most winning and engaging of voices. Reichl’s anecdotes from a summer lunch with M.F.K. Fisher, a mad dash through the produce market with Wolfgang Puck, and a garlic feast with Alice Waters are priceless. She is unafraid — even eager — to poke holes in the pretensions of food critics, making each meal a hilarious and instructive occasion for novices and experts alike.The New York Timeshas said, “While all good food critics are humorous .. few are so riotously, effortlessly entertaining as Ruth Reichl.” InComfort Me with Apples, Reichl once again demonstrates her inimitable ability to combine food writing, humor, and memoir into an art form.

Comfort Me with Apples

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Edwin Newman

A most unusual, unlikely Englishman becomes a professional fighter and does well enough to compete for the middleweight title.

Sunday Punch

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Judith Viorst

Selected Poems from Single to Mid-Life

When Did I Stop Being Twenty And Other Injustices brings together all of Judith Viorst's best-loved poetry--including many previously out-of-print favorites that her fans have been waiting to own.

Browse by categories

Ntozake Shange

Liliane

Nanci Kincaid

Pretending the Bed Is a Raft

Stephen Jay Gould

Questioning the Millennium

Laura Zigman

Animal Husbandry

Michael Connelly

Chasing the Dime

Martha W. McCartney

James City County

Betty Friedan

The Fountain of Age

Trevanian

Hot Night in the City

Jim Harrison

Julip

Wally Lamb

I Know This Much Is True

Alice Walker

The Temple of My Familiar

George Stephanopoulos

All Too Human

Patrick McGrath

Asylum

Michelle Slung

Slow Hand

Maggie Estep

Diary of an Emotional Idiot

Anna Quindlen

Black and Blue

Josephine Hart

Sin

Sapphire

Push

Abigail Thomas

Getting over Tom

Whitney Otto

How to Make an American Quilt

Ruth Reichl

Comfort Me with Apples

Edwin Newman

Sunday Punch

Judith Viorst

When Did I Stop Being Twenty and Other Injustices

Nicholas Sparks

The Rescue

Richard Wright; Arnold Rampersad

Rite of Passage

Phoebe Eng

Warrior Lessons

Sena Jeter Naslund

Ahab's Wife

Maxine Hong Kingston

The Fifth Book of Peace

Gregory Maguire

Mirror Mirror

James Ellroy

L. A. Noir

Larry McMurtry

Some Can Whistle

Gary M. Pomerantz

Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn

Amy Tan

The Hundred Secret Senses

Paul Theroux

Millroy the Magician

Steven Pinker

The Blank Slate

Willard R. Espy

Words Gotten Out

John Irving

A Prayer for Owen Meany

Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Women Who Run with the Wolves

Gloria Steinem

Revolution from Within

Kathleen Tessaro