Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and
successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and
enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther's
breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palpably real, even
rational—as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration
into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell
Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.
Marriage can be a real killer.
One of the most critically acclaimed
suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn
takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece
about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune
proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force
of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit
and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds
you at every turn.
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri,
it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped
and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears
from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick
isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and
shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl
perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting
pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting
parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and
inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is
he really a killer?
As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon
wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister,
Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do
it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden
in the back of her bedroom closet?
With her razor-sharp writing and
trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly
dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the
hottest writers around.
'Hillary Jordan channels Nathaniel
Hawthorne by way of Margaret Atwood in this fast-paced, dystopian thriller.
Unputdownable' Valerie Martin, author of The Confessions of Edward Day 'Not only
one of the best books of the year, but it's everything the dystopian genre was
made for ... An instant classic for the 21st century' Publisher's Weekly 'A
stunning futuristic thriller ! the setup in the first part of the book is
excellent, very Handmaid's Tale, the second half is a straight chase and escape
tale. The whole thing is stunning.' The Bookseller PRAISE FOR HILLARY JORDAN:
'Hillary Jordan writes with the force of a Delta storm' Barbara Kingsolver
'Jordan's tautly structured debut ... confronts disturbing truths about
America's past with a directness and a freshness of approach that recalls Alice
Walker's The Color Purple.' The Times 'The winner of Barbara Kingsolver's
Bellwether Prize for a novel 'promoting social responsibility,' Hillary Jordan
is happily a writer who puts her duty to entertain first' The Independent
September 13 -Paula October 11 - Amy Jones November 8 - Amy Gall December 13 -Malin Please let me know if all of these days are still working. :)
KATE AND ZOE met at nineteen when they both made the cut for the national
training program in track cycling—a sport that demands intense focus, blinding
exertion, and unwavering commitment. They are built to exploit the barest
physical and psychological edge over equally skilled rivals, all of whom are
fighting for the last one tenth of a second that separates triumph from despair.
Now at thirty-two, the women are facing their last and biggest race: the 2012
Olympics. Each wants desperately to win gold, and each has more than a medal to
lose.
Kate is the more naturally gifted, but the demands of her life have a
tendency to slow her down. Her eight-year-old daughter Sophie dreams of the
Death Star and of battling alongside the Rebels as evil white blood cells ravage
her personal galaxy—she is fighting a recurrence of the leukemia that nearly
killed her three years ago. Sophie doesn’t want to stand in the way of her mum’s
Olympic dreams, but each day the dark forces of the universe seem to be massing
against her.
Devoted and self-sacrificing Kate knows her daughter is fragile, but at the
height of her last frenzied months of training, might she be blind to the most
terrible prognosis?
Intense, aloof Zoe has always hovered on the periphery of real human
companionship, and her compulsive need to win at any cost has more than once
threatened her friendship with Kate—and her own sanity. Will she allow her
obsession, and the advantage she has over a harried, anguished mother, to sever
the bond they have shared for more than a decade?
Echoing the adrenaline-fueled rush of a race around the Velodrome track,
Gold is a triumph of superbly paced, heart-in-throat storytelling. With
great humanity and glorious prose, Chris Cleave examines the values that lie at
the heart of our most intimate relationships, and the choices we make when lives
are at stake and everything is on the line.
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubbornnonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose MaryWalls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving amongSouthwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic,brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teachingthem physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. RoseMary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providingfor her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a mealthat would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make apainting that might last forever.
Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wanderinglife faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- andthe family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. Hestole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of thefamily escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend forthemselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayalsand, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.
What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that shehad the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describesher parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumphagainst all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in afamily that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination tocarve out a successful life on her own terms.
For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells herown story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and LongIsland and is married to the writer John Taylor.
A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past.
The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating grief, mistrust, and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings.
Now eighteen and emancipated from the system, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But a mysterious vendor at the flower market has her questioning what’s been missing in her life, and when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.
BONUS: This edition contains The Language of Flowers discussion questions.
Grace Winter, 22, is both a newlywed and a widow. She is also on trial for her life.
In the summer of 1914, the elegant ocean liner carrying her and her husband Henry across the Atlantic suffers a mysterious explosion. Setting aside his own safety, Henry secures Grace a place in a lifeboat, which the survivors quickly realize is over capacity. For any to live, some must die.
As the castaways battle the elements, and each other, Grace recollects the unorthodox way she and Henry met, and the new life of privilege she thought she'd found. Will she pay any price to keep it?
The Lifeboat is a page-turning novel of hard choices and survival, narrated by a woman as unforgettable and complex as the events she describes.
Review
"Charlotte Rogan uses a deceptively simply narrative of shipwreck and survival to explore our all-too-human capacity for self-deception." (J. M. Coetzee )
"The Lifeboat traps the reader in a story that is exciting at the literal level and brutally moving at the existential: I read it in one go." (Emma Donoghue, author of Room )
"What a splendid book. . . . I can't imagine any reader who looks at the opening pages wanting to put the book down. . . . It's so refreshing to read a book that is ambitious and yet not tricksy, where the author seems to be in command of her material and really on top of her game. It's beautifully controlled and totally believable." (Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall )
"The Lifeboat is a spellbinding and beautifully written novel, one that will keep readers turning pages late into the night. This is storytelling at its best, and I was completely absorbed from beginning to end." (Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried, In the Lake of the Woods, July, July )
"The Lifeboat is a richly rewarding novel, psychologically acute and morally complex. It can and should be read on many levels, but it is first and foremost a harrowing tale of survival. And what an irresistible tale it is; terrifying, intense, and, like the ocean in which the shipwrecked characters are cast adrift, profound." (Valerie Martin, author of Property and The Confessions of Edward Day )
About the Author
Charlotte Rogan studied architecture at Princeton University, graduating in 1975. She lives in Westport, Connecticut. This is her first novel.
April 12 -Kimbril May 10 -Dana June 7 -Cherie July 12 -J.C. August 9 -Denise September 13 -Paula October 11 - Amy Jones November 8 - Amy Gall December 13 -Malin
My latest obsession is the Trilogy series – 50 Shades. The first book is called 50 Shades of Grey. Think of it as a cross between Beauty & the Beast and Twilight. It is a love story of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey. The complex character of Christian is that you love him and hate him at the same time. He is an uber successful, alpha male with a dark and dominate side in his intimate relations. He meets and falls for innocent and virginal college student Anastasia.Read more: Book Club: 50 Shades of Grey Reviewhttp://947freshfm.radio.com/2012/03/05/bookclub-50-shades-of-grey-review/#ixzz1qzOCERRL
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.
The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.
Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.
In her long-awaited new book, seven years in the making, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in her blockbuster bestseller, Seabiscuit. Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.
Sex and drugs and shlock and more--Jacqueline Susann's addictively entertaining trash classic about three showbiz girls clawing their way to the top and hitting bottom in New York City has it all. Though it's inspired by Susann's experience as a mid-century Broadway starlet who came heartbreakingly close to making it, but did not, and despite its reputation as THE roman รก clef of the go-go 1960s, the novel turned out to be weirdly predictive of 1990s post-punk, post-feminist, post "riot grrrl" culture. Jackie Susann may not be a writer for the ages, but--alas!--she's still a writer for our times.
