John Updike

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Essays and Criticism

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism, Hugging the Shore is an enormously intelligent, witty collection of essays by John Updike. The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist sheds keen light on everything from the first kiss to going barefoot to the world's greatest writers. First time in paper.

Hugging the Shore

e4751bf0-25e9-4668-81dc-09146a31acce-0

Lee Gutkind

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Anyone still asking, "What is creative nonfiction?" will find the answer in this collection of artfully crafted, true stories. Selected by Lee Gutkind, the "godfather behind creative nonfiction," and the staff of Creative Nonfiction, these stories--ranging from immersion journalism to intensely personal essays--illustrate the genre's power and potential. Edwidge Danticat recalls her Uncle Moise's love of a certain four-letter word and finds in his abandonment of the word near the end of his life the true meaning of exile. In "Literary Murder," Julianna Baggott traces her roots as a novelist to her family's "strange, desperate (sometimes conniving and glorious) past" and writes about her decision, in The Madam, to kill off a character based on her grandfather. And Sean Rowe explains why, if you must get arrested, Selma, Alabama, is the place to do it. This exciting and expansive array of works and voices is sure to impress and delight.

The Best Creative Nonfiction

47ef6048-e496-44fb-b9d8-d35bde95a0c7-1

Manjula Martin

Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living

A collection of essays from today's most acclaimed authors--from Cheryl Strayed to Roxane Gay to Jennifer Weiner, Alexander Chee, Nick Hornby, and Jonathan Franzen--on the realities of making a living in the writing world.

In the literary world, the debate around writing and commerce often begs us to take sides: either writers should be paid for everything they do or writers should just pay their dues and count themselves lucky to be published. You should never quit your day job, but your ultimate goal should be to quit your day job. It's an endless, confusing, and often controversial conversation that, despite our bare-it-all culture, still remains taboo. In Scratch, Manjula Martin has gathered interviews and essays from established and rising authors to confront the age-old question: how do creative people make money?

As contributors including Jonathan Franzen, Cheryl Strayed, Roxane Gay, Nick Hornby, Susan Orlean, Alexander Chee, Daniel Jose Older, Jennifer Weiner, and Yiyun Li candidly and emotionally discuss money, MFA programs, teaching fellowships, finally getting published, and what success really means to them, Scratch honestly addresses the tensions between writing and money, work and life, literature and commerce. The result is an entertaining and inspiring book that helps readers and writers understand what it's really like to make art in a world that runs on money--and why it matters. Essential reading for aspiring and experienced writers, and for anyone interested in the future of literature, Scratch is the perfect bookshelf companion to On Writing, Never Can Say Goodbye, and MFA vs. NYC.

Scratch

c9d484e1-85ee-4e63-9ed9-8ca5dc86b375-1

Benjamin Percy

Essays on Fiction

Bold new essays on how to craft a thrilling read--in any genre--from the bestselling author of The Dead Lands

Anyone familiar with the meteoric rise of Benjamin Percy's career will surely have noticed a certain shift: After writing two short-story collections and a literary novel, he delivered the werewolf thriller Red Moon and the postapocalyptic epic The Dead Lands. Now, in his first book of nonfiction, Percy challenges the notion that literary and genre fiction are somehow mutually exclusive. The title essay is an ode to the kinds of books that make many readers fall in love with fiction: science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, horror, from J.R.R. Tolkien to Anne Rice, Ursula K. Le Guin to Stephen King. Percy's own academic experience banished many of these writers in the name of what is "literary" and what is "genre." Then he discovered Michael Chabon, Aimee Bender, Cormac McCarthy, Margaret Atwood, and others who employ techniques of genre fiction while remaining literary writers. In fifteen essays on the craft of fiction, Percy looks to disparate sources such as Jaws, Blood Meridian, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to discover how contemporary writers engage issues of plot, suspense, momentum, and the speculative, as well as character, setting, and dialogue. An urgent and entertaining missive on craft, Thrill Me brims with Percy's distinctive blend of anecdotes, advice, and close reading, all in the service of one dictum: Thrill the reader.

Thrill Me

876c8e05-a8e8-4932-a7ed-f820cf5b2116-1

Annie Dillard

"For nonwriters, it is a glimpse into the trials and satisfactions of a life spent with words. For writers, it is a warm, rambling, conversation with a stimulating and extraordinarily talented colleague." -- Chicago Tribune

From Pulitzer Prize-winning Annie Dillard, a collection that illuminates the dedication and daring that characterizes a writer's life.

In these short essays, Annie Dillard--the author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and An American Childhood--illuminates the dedication, absurdity, and daring that characterize the existence of a writer. A moving account of Dillard's own experiences while writing her works, The Writing Life offers deep insight into one of the most mysterious professions.

The Writing Life

071159d4-bd2d-4a68-8381-9b806ad65f9a-1

Mike Rose

A Moving Account of the Struggles and Achievements of America's Educationally un Derprepared

The award-winning account of how America's educational system fails it students and what can be done about it

Remedial, illiterate, intellectually deficient--these are the stigmas that define America's educationally underprepared. Having grown up poor and been labeled this way, nationally acclaimed educator and author Mike Rose takes us into classrooms and communities to reveal what really lies behind the labels and test scores. With rich detail, Rose demonstrates innovative methods to initiate "problem" students into the world of language, literature, and written expression. This book challenges educators, policymakers, and parents to re-examine their assumptions about the capacities of a wide range of students.

Already a classic, Lives on the Boundary offers a truly democratic vision, one that should be heeded by anyone concerned with America's future.

"A mirror to the many lacking perfect grammar and spelling who may see their dreams translated into reality after all." -Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Vividly written . . . tears apart all of society's prejudices about the academic abilities of the underprivileged." -New York Times

Lives on the Boundary

5e8a1d56-4383-47af-81c3-5e47b7a764f0-1

Aquino De Braganca

The Anatomy of Colonialism

African Liberation Reader

c51412a5-0817-45ab-98f8-2f970847928b-0

Jonathan Grayson

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

A Personalized Recovery Program for Living with Uncertainty, Updated Edition

Nearly six million Americans suffer from the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, which can manifest itself in many ways: paralyzing fear of contamination; unmanageable "checking" rituals; excessive concern with order, symmetry, and counting; and others.
 
Freedom from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder provides Dr. Jonathan Grayson's revolutionary and compassionate program for finally breaking the cycle of overwhelming fear and endless rituals, including: 
 
 * Self-assessment tests that guide readers in identifying their specific type of OCD and help track their progress in treatment
 * Case studies from Dr. Grayson's revolutionary and profoundly successful treatment program
 * Blueprints for programs tailored to particular manifestations of OCD
 * Previously unexplored manifestations of OCD such as obsessive staring, Relationship OCD (R-OCD), obsessive intolerance of environmental sounds and chewing sounds
 * Therapy scripts to help individuals develop their own therapeutic voice, to motivate themselves to succeed
 * New therapies used in conjunction with exposure techniques
 * "Trigger sheets" for identifying and planning for obstacles that arise in treatment
 * Information on building a support group
 * And much more

Demystifying the process of OCD assessment and treatment, this indispensable book helps sufferers make sense of their own compulsions through frank, unflinching self-evaluation, and provides not only the knowledge of how to change--but the courage to do it.
 

Freedom from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

b7add9b2-519b-4491-bef6-217dfbb498fe-1

Ellen Cushman

Eugene R. Kintgen

Barry M. Kroll

English

A Critical Sourcebook

This new collection of both landmark and current essays provides a comprehensive overview of the major themes and questions that shape literacy studies today. Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook is an indispensable reference tool for anyone interested in the field of literacy studies and ideally suited for use in a wide range of upper-division and graduate classes.

Literacy

fcfbff2e-1c5d-4e72-b5b0-9501f186c941-0

Jeanne Fahnestock

Marie Secor

Text and Reader

"The "stasis approach" pioneered by Fahnestock and Secor distinguishes among four basic questions that arguments are written to answer: What is it? (Definition arguments) How did it get that way? (Causal arguments) Is it good or bad? (Evaluation arguments) What should we do about it? (Proposal arguments) These four questions, now standard in many argument texts, give students a constructive, engaging way to analyze arguments by other writers and to construct their own arguments."--GoogleBooks.

A Rhetoric of Argument

3d872472-c3b1-40af-a43a-5fb6ab14aa77-1

Gerard A. Hauser

The Rhetoric of Publics and Public Spheres

Vernacular Voices addresses the role of citizen voices in steering a democracy through an examination of the rhetoric of publics-active segments of society that influence the general climate of public dialogue-and of the associated public spheres and public opinion. Gerard A. Hauser maintains that the interaction between everyday and official discourse discloses how active members of a complex society discover and clarify their shared interests and engage in exchanges that shape their opinions on issues of common interest. Paying close attention to how members of society engage in public dialogue reveals a picture of citizens who are contentious on matters that affect their lives. This book sets forth a conceptual framework, called publics theory, for understanding how the rhetorical character of formal and informal communication bears on the spheres in which publics form and the quality of the opinions they express. Hauser extends his discussion of these theoretical concerns through four case studies. The first explores the role of cultural memory and narrative in shaping the recent political transformations in Central Europe by contrasting events in Poland and the former Yugoslavia. The other case studies explore attempts to redefine the character of the public sphere by the so-called Meese Commission Report, the Carter administration's technological understanding of public opinion during the Iranian hostage situation of 1979-80, and the dialogue of the American people with Franklin D. Roosevelt on the meaning of America as expressed in letters encouraging him to stand for a third term in office.

Vernacular Voices

ad56d3f0-892f-4fe1-a79a-da82a9426e7e-0

Emily McIntire

A Never after Novel

Once Upon A Time, there was a wicked girl. She lost everything that mattered, causing darkness to unfurl. Impulsive and intelligent, she helped her family name grow strong. But then one day a man without a heart came along. An undercover agent, meant to spy and bring back tips. Following down her hidden path of faded yellow bricks. She hated him, he wanted her; she was too good to be true. But a woman can be great... and terrible too. ** Wretched is a dark, contemporary romance (not fantasy or a retelling) and the third complete standalone in The Never After Series: A collection of fractured fairy tales inspired by our favorite villains. It features mature themes and content that may not be suitable for all readers. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.*

Wretched

95edcc68-47fe-44cb-bef5-61feecf804b5-1

He wants revenge, but he wants her more. Once Upon A Time, there was a little boy. His belly full of laughter, his life full of joy. Until one day, something changed; stripped his innocence away. The hole inside making space for the devil to come and play. His dreams gone forever, he grew up way too fast. An endless night of crocodiles, and watches made of glass. He grew into a villain, the taste of vengeance on his tongue. Craving to make his enemies pay for the misdeeds they had done. Instead he found a darling girl, and refused to let her go. For what better way to make the man pay, than to steal his little shadow. *Hooked is a full-length, complete standalone and the first in The Never After Series: A collection of fractured fairy tales where the villains get the happy ever after. This is a DARK Contemporary romance (not fantasy) featuring mature themes and content that may not be suitable for all audiences. Reader discretion is advised.*

Hooked

8387f48b-cefc-49a2-b97f-e1948c52ce57-1

Once Upon A Time, There was a king who passed. He left behind two sons, one beloved and one outcast. The older of the two was set to take the throne, but before he could, he had to find a queen to call his own. The younger one was known to be unruly and unhinged. The chosen queen was warned to keep far away from him. Beautiful and cunning, in the light is where she stayed. But late at night, it was the shadowed lands in which she played. Mistakes were made and secrets forged; forgetting duty and her sense. And while the new king had her hand, her heart belonged to the scarred prince. *Scarred is a dark royal romance. It is not a retelling, and it is not fantasy. It has mature situations and themes which may be considered triggers for some. Reader discretion is advised.*

Scarred

1d8c34c7-ea4e-4672-96a7-51d13ca64d5d-1

He is righteousness. She is sin. Father Cade Frédéric is a holy man. Brought up in the streets of Paris, he has dedicated his life to the church. But there's a monster that lingers just beneath the surface. A sickness. One that bleeds darkness and feeds on the damned. When he's tasked to become the priest in Festivalé, Vermont--a town both beautiful in architecture and riddled with despair--his sickness sings, demanding he rid the place of evil. Amaya Paquette is Festivalé's beautiful mystery. She spends her days caring for her younger brother and her nights transforming into Esmeralda, dancing for greedy eyes and shameless lips. Although she longs for love, she shies away from companionship, afraid of being abandoned again. When Father Cade lays eyes on Amaya, he finds himself ensnared, convinced she's using witchcraft to lure him to her. He can't eat. Can't breathe. Can't think unless it's of her. And temptation is a devastating mistress. She's his weakness, so he decides he'll be her demise...even if it means killing the only woman he might ever love.

Crossed

ed1f7bd3-304f-49b6-a5a1-a77df3a2c396-1

Laura Thalassa

They came to earth--Pestilence, War, Famine, Death--four horsemen riding their screaming steeds, racing to the corners of the world. Four horsemen with the power to destroy all of humanity. They came to earth, and they came to end us all. When Pestilence, the first of the horsemen, comes for Sara Burn's town, one thing is certain: everyone she knows and loves is marked for death. Unless, of course, the angelic-looking horseman is stopped, which is exactly what Sara has in mind when she shoots the unholy beast off his steed. Too bad no one told her Pestilence can't be killed. Alive and furious, the horseman takes Sara prisoner, determined to make her suffer for impeding his mission. Despite her pleas, nothing and no one gets in the way of his orders to destroy humankind. Only, the longer Pestilence spends beside Sara's bravery and compassion, the more he seems to understand her, and understand humanity. And the longer Sara travels with Pestilence and his plague, the more uncertain she grows about his true feelings toward her...and hers toward him. Sara might still be able to save the world, but she'll have to sacrifice her heart in the process.

Pestilence

01d876b0-c562-4878-ad8a-c5217e073ca0-1

Kate Stewart

An AMAZON TOP 60 BESTSELLER!Can you keep a secret?I grew up sick.Let me clarify.I grew up believing that real love stories include a martyr or demand great sacrifice to be worthy.Because of that, I believed it, because I made myself believe it, and I bred the most masochistic of romantic hearts, which resulted in my illness.When I lived this story, my own twisted fairy tale, it was unbeknownst to me at the time because I was young and naïve. I gave into temptation and fed the beating beast, which grew thirstier with every slash, every strike, every blow.Triple Falls wasn't at all what it seemed, nor were the men that swept me under their wing. But in order to keep them, I had to be in on their secrets.Secrets that cost us everything to keep.That's the novelty of fiction versus reality. You can't re-live your own love story, because by the time you've realized you're living it, it's over. At least that was the case for me and the men I trusted my foolish heart to.Looking back, I'm convinced I willed my story into existence due to my illness.And all were punished.This trilogy is a gritty, modern day take on Robin Hood. It's an unconventional love story--bad boys/antiheroes--filled with suspense, steam, major twists, a little action, and ALL OF THE FEELS.The Ravenhood Trilogy Reading OrderBook #1 FlockBook #2 ExodusBook #3 The Finish Line

Flock

9d47d209-c8aa-4b17-a455-07b4b5371ca0-1

Raven Kennedy

From internationally bestselling author and TikTok phenom Raven Kennedy comes the first book in a stunning new fantasy series inspired by the myth of King Midas, perfect for fans of Sarah J Maas and Jennifer L Armentrout. The fae abandoned this world to us. And the ones with power rule. Gold. Gold floors, gold walls, gold furniture, gold clothes. In Highbell, in the castle built into the frozen mountains, everything is made of gold. Even me. King Midas rescued me. Dug me out of the slums and placed me on a pedestal. I'm called his precious. His favored. I'm the woman he Gold-Touched to show everyone that I belong to him. To show how powerful he is. He gave me protection, and I gave him my heart. And even though I don't leave the confines of the palace, I'm safe. Until war comes to the kingdom and a deal is struck. Suddenly, my trust is broken. My love is challenged. And I realize that everything I thought I knew about Midas might be wrong. Because these bars I'm kept in, no matter how gilded, are still just a cage. But the monsters on the other side might make me wish I'd never left.

Gild

77f0006f-80ca-4b30-8049-5b0f34a4ef72-0

Browse by categories

John Updike

Hugging the Shore

Lee Gutkind

The Best Creative Nonfiction

Manjula Martin

Scratch

Benjamin Percy

Thrill Me

Annie Dillard

The Writing Life

Mike Rose

Lives on the Boundary

Aquino De Braganca

African Liberation Reader

Jonathan Grayson

Freedom from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Ellen Cushman; Eugene R. Kintgen; Barry M. Kroll; Mike Rose

Literacy

Jeanne Fahnestock; Marie Secor

A Rhetoric of Argument

Gerard A. Hauser

Vernacular Voices

Emily McIntire

Wretched

Emily McIntire

Hooked

Emily McIntire

Scarred

Emily McIntire

Crossed

Laura Thalassa

Pestilence

Kate Stewart

Flock

Raven Kennedy

Gild

Get The App